Riyadh Air’s Network Reaches Nine Cities After a Four-Route August

Riyadh Air has spent August adding routes at a pace that few start-up carriers attempt, and the month has taken its network from a handful of cities to nine. Daily Boeing 787-9 service to Mumbai began on August 4, followed by Dhaka on August 7. Islamabad joined as a daily service on August 14, and Lahore came online with three weekly flights from August 16. Four South Asian cities in under two weeks is an aggressive schedule for an airline that only began commercial flying last year, and it signals that the carrier intends to build density quickly rather than test markets one at a time.

The choice of destinations is not accidental. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan supply an enormous share of the expatriate and migrant workforce living in Saudi Arabia, which gives these routes a reliable base of point-to-point demand before any connecting traffic is counted. That is a different proposition from the premium-heavy launch routes many new full-service carriers chase. It also positions Riyadh as a transfer point between South Asia and Europe, a role Gulf hubs to the east and south have dominated for two decades and which Saudi Arabia has made no secret of wanting a share of.

The August additions sit alongside other recent network news, including seasonal flying to Malaga in Spain and year-round service to Kuala Lumpur. The airline has also secured regulatory clearance to serve Beijing and Shanghai and has obtained the authority it needs to begin operating to the United States, which points to a considerably longer-haul phase ahead. Fleet commitments have moved in step: at the Farnborough Airshow the carrier firmed an order for six additional Airbus A350-1000s and exercised options on 28 Boeing 787s, adding the widebody capacity that any of those plans would require.

The published targets are steep. Riyadh Air has said it intends to grow from the six cities it served at launch to 22 destinations by March 2027, and to serve more than 100 international cities by the end of the decade. Reaching nine in August puts it broadly on track for the first of those milestones, though the second implies a rate of expansion that would be remarkable in any market. For travellers, the practical effect over the next 18 months is a wider set of one-stop options through Riyadh, and more competitive pressure on fares between South Asia and Europe.

Sources: Aviation Week, Simple Flying