Riyadh Air has been forced to delay its official start of flight operations due to ongoing delays to Boeing aircraft deliveries.
Saudi Arabia’s new airline had been due to start flying early this year. However, a hold-up in plane deliveries has forced it to delay take-off until the third quarter of this year.
According to Bloomberg, Riyadh Air had been expecting to take delivery of eight Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes this year, but is now more realistically looking at getting only four during 2025.
Safety delays and strike action have delayed Boeing’s production line of late, with the US planemaker now lagging its European counterpart Airbus in terms of output.
Saudi Arabia officially launched Riyadh Air – which had been in the planning stages for a significant amount of time – in March, 2023; announcing former Emirates CEO Tony Douglas as boss and a bold ambition of overtaking Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways as the dominant Middle Eastern carrier.
Since then, Riyadh Air has announced a chief sponsor/stadium naming rights holder for Spanish football giants Atletico Madrid and signed a strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines.
Riyadh will also be the sole Saudi Arabian carrier operating from the Kingdom’s capital city, with existing flag carrier, Saudia moving operations to Jeddah.
However, it is feared this production delay could challenge Saudi Arabia’s target of attracting 150 million visitors this year.
