Riyadh Air plans new jet order decision early next year

LONDON: Saudi startup Riyadh Air is wading back into the jet market after buying dozens of Airbus and Boeing planes and aims to finalize a new deal involving the industry’s largest twin-aisle jets early next year, its CEO said.

The country’s newest national airline is weighing up the Boeing 777X and the Airbus A350-1000 and expects to make a decision in the first or second quarters of 2025, CEO Tony Douglas told Reuters.

Riyadh Air last year ordered 39 Boeing 787 wide-body jets with options for another 33 as part of a wider deal also involving national carrier Saudia, and last week it added a firm order for 60 Airbus A321neo-family aircraft.

Douglas declined to comment on the size of the new order but reiterated that the airline, which plans to start operations next year, ultimately aimed to operate more than 200 aircraft.

Douglas told Reuters in a separate interview last week that Riyadh Air would start formal talks for a new order for large wide-body aircraft within two months.

The roughly 200-seat A321neo is an in-demand single-aisle aircraft that competes with the larger versions of Boeing 737 MAX. Airbus says it is sold out through the rest of the decade.

Despite the long lead times for most new purchases, Douglas said the A321neos would be delivered between the second half of 2026 and the end of 2030 and hinted at further purchases.

“That puts us right back in the standard order window with Airbus so the door is wide open,” he said.

Industry sources said the aircraft had become available as part of a complex financing deal driven by the availability of future delivery slots originally assigned to Capital A unit AirAsia, which has been restructuring its order book.

Airbus declined to comment and AirAsia did not reply to a request for comment.

Douglas declined to comment on the deal’s structure, saying only that it was a “complex multi-party transaction.”

The growth of Riyadh Air, owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is one of the industry’s fastest launches.

Douglas said the A321neo would be used to open new routes or to fly in sectors where there is not enough demand to fill the 290-seat Boeing 787-9, adding that flying such big jets less than three-quarters full would not make sense economically.

Riyadh Air has not decided which version of A321neo to take but is likely to include some long-distance models, he added.