In a development that should surprise no one, ambitious Saudi Arabian airline startup Riyadh Air won’t be launching operations with the initially planned timeline.
In this post:
Riyadh Air pushes back launch by several months
Riyadh Air will be start service with brand new Boeing 787-9s, as the airline has ordered up to 72 of these. All along, the plan has been for Riyadh Air to take delivery of its first 787 Dreamliner in early 2025, and launch operations in the middle of 2025. However, that timeline has slipped.
The airline now anticipates taking delivery of its first 787 in Q3 2025, and then launching operations shortly thereafter. As an airline official explains:
“The arrival of the first B787-9 will allow operations to commence as soon as possible, and we remain in close contact with our colleagues at Boeing with the aim to receive delivery of a number of aircraft later this year. Major parts of the first aircraft are already prepared for final assembly and given well-known global supply chain challenges, we expect delivery to start in Q3, facilitating the start of operations soon after.”
Of course this delay shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given Boeing’s consistent delivery delays. Riyadh Air is hardly alone when it comes to having to alter its plans due to delayed aircraft. The difference between Riyadh Air and other carriers is that the airline is fully reliant on this to be able to commence operations, rather than just to grow.
Funny enough, Riyadh Air is actually flying a leased Boeing 787 in its full livery. However, this plane won’t ever operate passenger flights for the airline. The eight-year-old Dreamliner flew for Oman Air, but is temporarily at Riyadh Air, to help the airline work through its certification process.
Riyadh Air is reportedly making good progress with launching operations. The airline expects to receive its air operator certificate from regulators in “the coming weeks,” and has also hired dozens of flight attendants and pilots.
Ironically, Lufthansa has exactly the opposite problem of Riyadh Air. The airline has over a dozen 787 Dreamliners ready to be delivered, but can’t get the seats certified.
Riyadh Air’s cabins will be revealed in coming months
In the coming months, we should expect Riyadh Air to unveil the details of its passenger experience and cabins. Initially these details were supposed to be announced in the first half of 2024, but that timeline has been pushed back, along with the delivery of the first planes.
Riyadh Air’s 787s are expected to be in a three cabin layout, with business class, premium economy, and economy. The airline is promising to have industry leading products, though no further details have been revealed just yet. The airline is also promising to be a “digital native,” though we’ll see what exactly that entails.
Hopefully Riyadh Air doesn’t have issues with getting its new cabins certified, unlike the issues Lufthansa is dealing with. I was expecting that Riyadh Air would introduce its own custom products, though I now feel like the airline is probably choosing some “off the shelf” seats with minor customizations, to make the certification process a bit easier (which would probably be smart).
Bottom line
Riyadh Air has pushed back its launch from the middle of 2025 to late 2025, due to Boeing delivery delays. The company now expects to get its first aircraft in Q3 2025, and to start operations shortly thereafter. That assumes there are no additional delays, be it with the aircraft as such, or certification of the cabins.
I’m mighty curious to see what Riyadh Air has planned for the passenger experience, but we’ll likely have to wait a short while longer before those details are revealed.
When do you think Riyadh Air will actually launch operations?
Under what circumstances will Boeing ever get caught up on deliveries to meet their customers promised delivery dates?
After your recent ordeal with Egypt I'd be nervous with writing anything less than steller after actually experiencing this airline.
AWESOME, so now we get a whole further year, and maybe even a few more liveries (on individual planes they'll never operate) of world-class advertising....
...from the "airline" that has never flown a single passenger nor announced a single route.
Do you think they are setting up a mom & pop shop? What do you want them to do with late deliveries outside their control. They are hiring & training people, Getting certified and doing marketing. They are doing everything they can possibily do untill they get the airplanes.
So, yet another Boeing own goal.
Riyadh Air should have ordered the A350.
If it’s a Boeing …. it ain’t going …. to be delivered.
If it's a BA .... it ain't going .... to be good.
From what I understand you “ain’t going” anywhere darlink.
From what I understand you “ain’t been” anywhere either Walter.
If it's AeroB13a .... it ain't going .... to make sense.
Walter and his ultra ego, Mitty, are fooling nobody, not that anyone cares as rubbish is rubbish no matter which one is gibbering on.
wow. This trash talk is really tragic.
His "Ultra ego"?
"darlink"?
Thank you for pointing out my typo Jane, I am very much obliged to you darlink. (Darlink is a UK joke).
“Ultra ego” is simply my not paying attention to Mr Apple’s AI suggestion.
Alter ego is of course what I meant, my mistake, Eskimo and Mason’s fault.
I’ve held my tongue for a while on this but now’s the time. It makes me sick watching LGBTQ+ travel bloggers (like yourself and NonStopDan) go gaga over Riyadh Air. Have you considered ignoring them? Not giving them air?
Oh f#ck off already. People can fly what they want.
Unless you're willing to completely forgo oil, natural gas, and any petroleum-derived product, then you're just as complicit with "supporting Saudi Arabia" as anyone else.
Stop trying to control other people for your petty do-nothing brand of politics.
Yeah. Much easier to choose not to give publicity to a bigoted airline versus completely quit oil and petroleum products.
What you’ve given me, my friend, is called a “false equivalence”.
Take your false equivalence, and you can f*ck off. Or are you gonna bitch and moan about my “petty do-nothing brand of politics”? As compared to yours? Yours that will fawn over Ben’s travels but sell out his rights so you can save $0.25 at the gas pump?
.....you expect to be taken seriously, by anyone, after *that*?
Should’ve known better than to expect anyone on this site to actually be empathetic towards LGBTQ+ people. Ben barely is even.
There, there children, do try to play nicely together.
Are you kidding me.....non stop Dan would primate anything he'll make a buck on
As would Ben. Hey, Amans don’t pay for themselves.
Calm down, Tulsa. It's an aviation blog about aviation-related news, not the DC HRC gala.
Ben is quite open about his husband and their amazing child together.
As much as you whine about simple coverage for Riyadh air on an aviation site, I truly doubt you dive into the LGBTQ+ views of every commercial item you purchase. Living in Tulsa, chances are pretty high you give one of your 14 local Chik Fil...
Calm down, Tulsa. It's an aviation blog about aviation-related news, not the DC HRC gala.
Ben is quite open about his husband and their amazing child together.
As much as you whine about simple coverage for Riyadh air on an aviation site, I truly doubt you dive into the LGBTQ+ views of every commercial item you purchase. Living in Tulsa, chances are pretty high you give one of your 14 local Chik Fil A shops business despite their well known stances on LGBT issues.
Seems like you just wanted to attack Ben over some random issue and challenge how "gay" he is despite likely making zero effort in your personal life to make commercial choices that only benefit LGBT causes. Where's the outrage over QR and EK?
cool the outrage. It's an aviation site. You'd find it impossible to live in Tulsa and make the "moral" commercial choices you seem to mandate to others.
“Chances are pretty high you frequent your local Chick-Fil-A”
I’m more of a Whataburger person, sorry to ruin your assumption.
“Where’s the outrage over QR and EK?”
Frankly, it’s a lost cause for me to mention it here, considering how you’re biting my head off for saying “hey maybe we shouldn’t give Riyadh Air so much space”.
“You’d find it impossible to live in Tulsa and make the "moral" commercial choices you seem to mandate...
“Chances are pretty high you frequent your local Chick-Fil-A”
I’m more of a Whataburger person, sorry to ruin your assumption.
“Where’s the outrage over QR and EK?”
Frankly, it’s a lost cause for me to mention it here, considering how you’re biting my head off for saying “hey maybe we shouldn’t give Riyadh Air so much space”.
“You’d find it impossible to live in Tulsa and make the "moral" commercial choices you seem to mandate to others”
But we’re not really talking about restaurants or businesses in our hometowns, are we? We’re talking about an airline (one of hundreds) in a country (one of over a hundred, over a continent away) where the mention of LGBTQ+ people is illegal and LGBTQ+ people can be punished with execution. Yet another false equivalence being made here.
You’re only further proving my point that this site, despite being run by a gay man, has zero empathy for the LGBTQ+ community.
But hey, I’ll just “cool the outrage” while you throw a little hissy fit over me saying the coverage of Riyadh Air makes me sick.
"You’re only further proving my point that this site, despite being run by a gay man, has zero empathy for the LGBTQ+ community."
It's not that, it's just that we have enough experience to recognize your type: some brash kid who still wears his sexuality as a religious/nationalistic-like shield, and thus gets affronted whenever he perceives someone or something being insufficiently LGBT-supporting.
Just like the Evangelicals do when they think something isn't Christian enough. Just...
"You’re only further proving my point that this site, despite being run by a gay man, has zero empathy for the LGBTQ+ community."
It's not that, it's just that we have enough experience to recognize your type: some brash kid who still wears his sexuality as a religious/nationalistic-like shield, and thus gets affronted whenever he perceives someone or something being insufficiently LGBT-supporting.
Just like the Evangelicals do when they think something isn't Christian enough. Just like the nationalists do when they think something isn't patriotic enough. You are not new, you are not special, you are not unencountered.
I was an AIDS Angel for hospice care for dying men in the late 80s, I clerked for one of the solicitors of the Bowers case while drafting his amicus brief for Lawrence v. Texas, I've donated more money to helping LGBT youth than you've probably made in your young life, and I sure hell won't be dictated by some kid who doesn't know shit from squat, as to where I can or cannot spend my money in terms of travel that I might not even choose to take.
Nor should anyone else.
“It's not that, it's just that we have enough experience to recognize your type: some brash kid who still wears his sexuality as a religious/nationalistic-like shield, and thus gets affronted whenever he perceives someone or something being insufficiently LGBT-supporting”
There’s “being insufficiently LGBT-supporting”, and there’s death penalties. Tell me which one a Saudi airline would fall under.
“ I was an AIDS Angel for hospice care for dying men in the late 80s, I clerked...
“It's not that, it's just that we have enough experience to recognize your type: some brash kid who still wears his sexuality as a religious/nationalistic-like shield, and thus gets affronted whenever he perceives someone or something being insufficiently LGBT-supporting”
There’s “being insufficiently LGBT-supporting”, and there’s death penalties. Tell me which one a Saudi airline would fall under.
“ I was an AIDS Angel for hospice care for dying men in the late 80s, I clerked for one of the solicitors of the Bowers case while drafting his amicus brief for Lawrence v. Texas”
To quote you, “you are not new, you are not special, you are not unencountered”. It’s odd that you list your exceptional actions while also complaining at me about how insignificant I am.
“I've donated more money to helping LGBT youth than you've probably made in your young life”
Ah, and now we bring money into this. It’s like my dear father always says - “those who have to brag about money probably don’t have that much”.
What’s the point of even bringing all of that up? Do you want me to thank you? Praise you? I’ve got something for you, alright. You are not new, you are not special, you are not unencountered. That’s my gift to you for all of your “service” to the LGBTQ+ community.
“I sure hell won't be dictated by some kid who doesn't know shit from squat, as to where I can or cannot spend my money in terms of travel that I might not even choose to take“
Next time I’m called a snowflake by a boomer, I’ll point to this. Because I wasn’t talking to you about what you should spend your money on. I was talking about this blog giving airtime to an airline from a country that routinely executes LGBTQ+ people and how I think it’s gross. But I’ll let you argue with yourself on that if that’s what you so choose. Thanks for the chat, queen!
"It’s odd that you list your exceptional actions while also complaining at me about how insignificant I am."
Not really, it's just asking what have YOU ever accomplished, as to be policing anyone else?
"Because I wasn’t talking to you about what you should spend your money on. I was talking about this blog giving airtime to an airline"
While it's clear that you might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, exactly what...
"It’s odd that you list your exceptional actions while also complaining at me about how insignificant I am."
Not really, it's just asking what have YOU ever accomplished, as to be policing anyone else?
"Because I wasn’t talking to you about what you should spend your money on. I was talking about this blog giving airtime to an airline"
While it's clear that you might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, exactly what do you think this blog's primary advisory purpose is?
How. To. Effectively. Spend.
Wow.
“Not really, it's just asking what have YOU ever accomplished, as to be policing anyone else?”
Can you help me out here? I’m pretty dim - is this a conversation about aviation, LGBTQ+ rights, or accomplishments? This is hard for a stupid person like me to follow.
(By the way - me saying “hey you giving a voice to an anti-gay airline makes me sick maybe not do that” isn’t really policing, but boomers like...
“Not really, it's just asking what have YOU ever accomplished, as to be policing anyone else?”
Can you help me out here? I’m pretty dim - is this a conversation about aviation, LGBTQ+ rights, or accomplishments? This is hard for a stupid person like me to follow.
(By the way - me saying “hey you giving a voice to an anti-gay airline makes me sick maybe not do that” isn’t really policing, but boomers like you think you should be immune from criticism but have every right to criticize the hell out of people like me, so I could see why you’d think what I said is policing).
“While it's clear that you might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, exactly what do you think this blog's primary advisory purpose is?
How. To. Effectively. Spend.
Wow.“
Again, for the “stupid” people like me, what is this whole conversation about? Because you’re complaining at me for talking about LGBTQ+ rights (or the lack thereof in Saudi Arabia), you then complain to me about my accomplishments, then complain that I’m telling you how to spend your money. All because I think it’s gross that a gay man is obsessing over Riyadh Air. I think that’s what people would call “reaching”. Or what people would call “a stretch”.
It must be nice being a bitchy boomer. Have the night you definitely deserve.
"routinely executes LGBTQ+ people" -- I live here, and this this is just patent nonsense.
Tell us the laws regarding gay people in Saudi Arabia. We’ll wait.
Really hope they don't join Skyteam even though they've partnered with members.
Saudia is already a SkyTeam member. Riyadh Air may join another alliance. But since these two airlines (Saudia and Riyadh Air) are owned by the same government (unlike Emirates and Eithad), I don't see them competing against each other. So there are possibilities that Riyadh Air may join SkyTeam since they are teaming up with SkyTeam member airlines. Delta will also launch flights to Riyadh.
.......Tim Dunn can enlighten us more on that.
I don't see how they CANNOT compete with each other. Transit traffic is the most obvious arena, as Riyadh Air is based at RUH and Saudia at JED.
Heh, looks like "the world's leading premium airline" will just have to wait some more for its ME partnership...
I can only imagine how confused one of our regular chatBot trolls must be about this.
On the one hand, Delta's work with Riyadh Air is going to be like NOTHING ever seen before simply because.... well, Delta.
On the other hand... they're delayed due to the 787 when they clearly should've listened to Delta and purchased the A350 or else end up like United...
oh vey
All jokes aside, I'm shocked that they've put all their (widebody) eggs in one basket, considering what a basket-case Boeing has recently been.
Bet Airbus would've loveeed to sell them a bunch of A330Ns, which would've been perfectly competitive to at least get a regional MidEast/India/Africa/European operation going.
Could've, should've, would've.... but still very surprising that we didn't see a split...
All jokes aside, I'm shocked that they've put all their (widebody) eggs in one basket, considering what a basket-case Boeing has recently been.
Bet Airbus would've loveeed to sell them a bunch of A330Ns, which would've been perfectly competitive to at least get a regional MidEast/India/Africa/European operation going.
Could've, should've, would've.... but still very surprising that we didn't see a split widebody order here, in order to avoid the very (predictable) outcome that we're seeing now.
There were very likely political and 'other' factors involved in this transaction with both the Saudis and the Americans scratching each other's backs strategically and financially.
Feels like Riyadh Air is going to be a letdown. We don't even know anything about their planned network yet.
Starlux in comparison felt much more organized and exciting.
Obviously alcohol isn’r everything, but I feel like this airline is going to struggle to compete 8! The premium ranks with the Gulf competitors because alcohol will be forbidden in the air and on the ground.
Then again, they can probably afford to just burn money.