Remember the crazy old days when there seemed to be no limit to Middle East carrier growth possibilities? It was completely insane. This madness may have fallen off, but the Saudis did not get the memo. Nay, they are ready to go ahead and build a new mega-airline. This newest airline will be called Riyadh Air, and it will be based in Jeddah. The plan is for Riyadh Air to fly to over destinations globally with at least 39 airplanes.
The press release says the plan will be this :. Replace Riyadh with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Doha and you could use this to describe a whole bunch of airlines in that region.
Tony Douglas will take the helm at Riyadh Air. Now Tony is being asked to create his own bloated, money-losing mess. It sure does. Saudia is a global airlineβ¦. In the month of May, Saudia will have 15, flights, of which 3, touch Riyadh.
Saudia has nearly planes with orders to grow that by 50 percent. This includes a brand-spanking new order place this week for 39 Boeing s with options for 10 more. Bizarrely, this was a joint order in which Riyadh Air also ordered 39 Boeing s, but it has options for 33 more. So take that, Saudia. In all seriousness, here is my best guess. Even though the PIF is supposed to be able to operate independently, it is truly a black box and the assumption is that MBS pulls the strings as he sees fit.
And in case there was any doubt, Riyadh Air will be wildly successful. And then one day, the government will decide to shift is priorities, and Riyadh Air will become a burden.
