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Riyadh Air News

The new Airbus aircraft will provide optimum fuel efficiency in line with the kingdom’s sustainability drive, said Flyadeal

Flyadeal confirms order of 51 Airbus narrowbody jets

Flyadeal, Saudi Arabia’s low-cost airline, has ordered 51 narrowbody Airbus aircraft to fuel its expansion plans. The carrier confirmed on Thursday it will receive 12 Airbus A320neos and 39 A321neos as part of the announcement by its parent company, Saudia Group, for 105 aircraft, the “largest deal in Saudi aviation history”.   Deliveries of the […]

Oman seeks investors for new low-cost airline

Oman plans to launch a new low-cost airline amid a global tourism rebound and the continued expansion of the Gulf state’s aviation sector. In a post on the social messaging platform X (formerly Twitter), the country’s civil aviation authority (CAA) announced an investment opportunity for a new low-cost airline operator in the sultanate. No further […]

Riyadh Air Comac C919

Riyadh Air not buying from China’s Comac ‘for now’

Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier, will not consider China’s Comac for its narrowbody order to be announced later this year. However, the airline said it saw a future in Saudi Arabia for Comac, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, as the Chinese alternative to Boeing and Airbus.  “The narrowbody order is in its […]

Saudi Comac Dongfeng He Bandar al-Khorayef

Chinese planemaker banned by US woos Saudi airlines

The boss of a leading Chinese planemaker arrived in Saudi Arabia this week to pitch his aircraft just as the United States said it was close to finalising a defence agreement with Riyadh that is meant to limit its trade links with China.  Dongfeng He, chairman of Comac, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, wants […]

Visitors to the Edge of the World, a natural landmark and popular tourist destination near Riyadh. Interacting with local people is important, says the tourism minister

Pressure on Saudi tourism exposes mixed feelings about AI

Saudi Arabia is trying to limit the use of artificial intelligence technology in its expanding tourism industry in an effort to boost job numbers, despite strides being made elsewhere in the sector to make the kingdom a leader in digitalisation.  Speaking at an economic forum in Doha last week, tourism minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb expressed concerns […]

GACA president Abdulaziz Al-Duailej said licences would be announced soon for more low-cost flights from regional Saudi airports

More low-cost airline routes planned for Saudi Arabia

Plans to privatise domestic airports have been announced by Saudi Arabia as part of an aviation expansion strategy, which includes imminent licences for more low-cost airline routes, the kingdom’s civil aviation authority said this week.  The General Authority of Civil Aviation has signed an agreement with a consortium led by the Turkish airport operator TAV […]

A jet on the assembly line at the Airbus factory in Blagnac, France. Saudia says it is updating the interiors of its current fleet

Saudia announces ‘largest deal in Saudi aviation history’

Saudia, one of Saudi Arabia’s national carriers, has ordered 105 aircraft from Airbus, with the first batch due for delivery in early 2026. Saudia director general Ibrahim Al-Omar told an aviation industry forum in Riyadh that it is “the largest deal in Saudi aviation history”. A similarly large order has been made by new carrier […]

King Abdulaziz International Airport: the number of international flights increased but there were less than 27.4 million international visitors to the kingdom last year

Passenger numbers rise 26% in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia said this week that its total number of air passengers rose 26 percent to 112 million in 2023. This includes a 46 percent rise in the total number of international travellers to 61 million.  The number means the kingdom’s airports are approaching full capacity, which is 116 million passengers a year, including 45 […]

Tourists visit the tombs of the Nabatean civilisation in AlUla. Saudi Arabia's goal is for tourism to make up 10 percent of GDP by 2030

Affluent tourists around the globe on Saudi Arabia’s radar

Saudi Arabia will invest more than $800 billion in its main giga-projects by the next decade as part of a tourism expansion strategy focused on affluent tourists in China, India and Europe.  The kingdom’s tourism minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb, speaking at the Qatar Investment Forum, said: “We’re building and investing in major destinations like Neom, Red […]