Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier, is ready at last to carry the public, having taken delivery of its first three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on 5 and 6 June and put tickets on sale. The aircraft arrived early enough to move the airline’s formal launch forward by three weeks, from 1 July to 10 June, the date its daily Riyadh–London service finally opened to anyone other than staff and invited guests.
For the eight months before that, the airline had flown the same route using a single leased Dreamliner, nicknamed Jamila, borrowed from Oman Air and still fitted with that carrier’s old interiors. Riyadh Air called the arrangement its Pathway to Perfect: a way of protecting hard-won Heathrow landing slots and pressure-testing ground operations while the public stayed off the aircraft entirely, with seats given over to staff, Public Investment Fund employees and their families. The two new Dreamliners arrived together after a transatlantic ferry flight in loose formation, one from Boeing’s line in Charleston, South Carolina, the other from Everett, Washington, touching down in Riyadh to a ceremonial water-cannon salute.
The opening map now covers London, Jeddah, Dubai, Cairo, Madrid and Manchester, with London live first, Jeddah and Dubai following within days, and Madrid and Manchester joining in July. All six routes fly the Dreamliner in the same four-class layout: Business Elite and Business in lie-flat suites, Premium Economy, and Economy, with Panasonic’s Astrova entertainment system and Bluetooth audio at every seat. The airline frames the cabin, and the Hafawa hospitality concept behind it, as the clearest expression yet of what it is trying to build. “It demonstrates our deep commitment to delivering a truly world-class journey for our guests, one that blends exceptional comfort, cutting-edge technology and our distinctive Saudi Hafawa hospitality,” said chief executive Tony Douglas.
The timing puts Riyadh Air directly into one of aviation’s most crowded corridors. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad already fly the Gulf-to-Europe route at scale, and all three, alongside the new arrival, are hiring pilots and cabin crew simultaneously, giving experienced staff more leverage than at any point in the past decade. Riyadh Air’s answer is to launch at the top of the market rather than build up to it, with a premium-heavy cabin from its very first flight rather than scaling into one once the network matures.
Owned by the Public Investment Fund and run by Douglas, formerly of Etihad, the airline is among the more conspicuous pieces of the Vision 2030 plan to turn Riyadh into a global connecting hub, with a stated aim of reaching more than 100 destinations by 2030 from a firm order of 72 Dreamliners, alongside Airbus A321neos and A350-1000s still to arrive. Early bookers are invited to join Sfeer, the airline’s loyalty programme, as founding members, earning rewards from their first flight. Visit Riyadh Air here.
