New mega-carrier Riyadh Air reveals its livery as it starts delivery of 72 long haul aircraft

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• Blair Waldorf Salad says:

  6 Jun6 June 08:20

  “IMO the world does not need another major ME airline but if this one wants to succeed it could do so by offering a 2-4-2 seat configuration through economy.”

  BJ, I’m afraid I couldn’t disagree more. Seat layout is a non-issue and indeed a surprise for most Y travellers based on my straw poll of watching faces as they board.

  I’m constantly stunned at families of 4 boarding, one parent turning to the other announcing the seat layout and then much muttering on their way down the aisle as to who is going to have to sit where.

  Even young couples get on and exclaim “Look, C is a window seat. I have a window. Oh wait, C is the aisle and A is the window? Is that right?”

  • BJ says:

    6 Jun6 June 08:50

    Yeah, probably, I always forget we’re in a bit of a bubble here. If I was flying longhaul Y my first though would be schedule, my second seat pitch abd configuration. For most though I think it’s just price from their local airport.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      6 Jun6 June 09:36

      Exactly the same for me. Last time I booked a Y ticket it was an exercise in checking every small detail to make the experience as hospitable as possible. Then a few days before flying I panicked about not being able to face Y, and did a bid upgrade into J.

  • Richie says:

    6 Jun6 June 13:09

    I’ve often thought the B789 and B781 are ripe for 2-4-2 economy seating before the final seating section and 3-3-3 for the final rear seating section.

• Traumahawk007 says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:14

  You can see exactly what they’re trying to do with NEOM & RSI due to open soon.

• Nick says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:25

  You missed flynas, the other airline to have grown substantially in recent years, so they have experience of it already.

  If this new outfit gets given some slots currently used by Saudia for Riyadh flights (e.g. at LHR) then it could have a running start. And Saudi is doing a huge amount to improve their image in people’s minds so a connecting hub could do ok if it’s cheap enough.

  Interesting times.

• dougzz99 says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:35

  Number of runways is a little misleading. Bad weather airports need more. Also not all runways are equal. One of those Schiphol runways has a taxi time not that different to the flight time to London, yes that’s an exaggeration but you know what I mean.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    6 Jun6 June 09:37

    The infamous Polderbaan. I recall landing on it during a connecting itinerary and slowly watching my chance of a shower in the lounge fade away as the taxiing continued

    • yorkieflyer says:

      6 Jun6 June 09:44

      I thought Polderban was built to attract Ryanair

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        6 Jun6 June 17:10

        Yes I’m sure they would have been delighted to pay for an extra 30 minutes of fuel per flight that uses the ‘baan

        It was built to improve general airport capacity and also reduce the noise effects on the locals of the other runways.

        Use of the ‘baan runway is built into the flight schedules.

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 09:37

    It does indeed – saw it when I had an airport tour pre covid.

• yorkieflyer says:

  6 Jun6 June 09:42

  Saudia were fine when we flew them pre pandemic to Colombo via Jeddah. Sky team status got us bulkhead economy seats and very attentive cabin crew and the lounge in Jeddah was good with zero alcohol beer. Airside the transit in Jeddah was comfortable and Mrs Yorkieflyer said she felt comfortable dressed in normal western clothes as no headscarves veils etc in evidence on any non local folk, indeed non of the leering frankly unpleasant behaviour western women often suffer in such as India.
  I do wonder tho if the new carrier is not dry will the welcome champers follow a reading from the Quran?

  • Kazim says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:05

    Quran first – champers second- need to the bless the champers first and make it ‘halal’…

  • Tangerine says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:15

    Not sure people realise this but ALL the ME airlines have a reading of the Quran before take-off (its a prayer specific for journeys). And a lot of them serve champs so this one may be no different.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      6 Jun6 June 13:12

      Aer Lingus still name their planes after Catholic saints…..

• Bagoly says:

  6 Jun6 June 11:00

  “Will it be part of an alliance?” prompts the interesting idea that one reason for having two major airlines would be to have them in different alliances.

  The strategic issue that seems weird to me is that Riyadh is the conservative place and Jeddah much less so. So having the dry and wet approach seems to be the wrong way round.

  • Novice says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:06

    My guess is Star Alliance

  • Bloxorus says:

    6 Jun6 June 13:27

    Jeddah airport is primarily serving millions of pilgrims travelling to Mecca – so on the whole very religious. Riyadh on the other hand is more of a business hub so the strategy definitely makes sense to me…

• Novice says:

  6 Jun6 June 11:03

  Everyone is talking about Saudi as a country; about their culture, morals etc. Nobody is actually questioning the fact that given the location of Saudi; will it actually be a place that can actually be a viable option for tourism/flights. They might have the money to throw all over the place but they can’t change the weather nor they can throw their money at the climate.

  Already I think there may come a time that the whole ME will be too hot for anything but at least the other airlines have already established themselves before the killer heat thing happens.

  ME has a few years at maximum before all the tourism etc will shift to some place else and given the fact that climate lobby is becoming more impactful, the younger generation might actually be more inclined to travel within their own continent.

  I’m just giving another perspective here. I’m not saying I personally will not be travelling on it.

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:15

    What’s bizarre about ME tourism is that it has shown itself to be pretty much immune to the weather. You’d think that no-one would visit in Summer when it is 40+ degrees but hotel occupancy was 75% last August. A lot of Europeans have decided that £500+ in Spain / Portugal per night is a joke for what you get and they’d happily pay less for a better property in the ME, even if it means taking a siesta (or going shopping) between 10am and 3pm to avoid the worst of the heat.

    Not sure that adding an extra 1-2 degrees will make a lot of difference.

    The ME remains a good place to have a hub airport due to no issues over 24/7 operation and the fact that the centre of gravity in the world is moving east and the ME sits handily in the middle. This will be China’s century, as the 20th century belonged to the US, the 19th/18th century arguably to Britain and the 17th/16th century arguably to the Dutch.

    • The Original David says:

      6 Jun6 June 11:28

      But if we’re all heading to China, the Middle East is a bit far south to be a convenient transfer point. The opportunity is ripe for Air Astana!

    • SamG says:

      6 Jun6 June 11:32

      We were discussing exactly this in the office yesterday – one colleague has booked a pretty mid range looking place in Turkey which has cost more than another colleagues trip to a decent hotel in Dubai (that cools it’s pools). The temperatures aren’t massively different (you can’t really have kids out in the heat of the day in either) and it’s a lot easier taking kids on an Emirates A380 with food and TV to distract rather than ~5hrs on Easyjet !

      • GeoffreyB says:

        6 Jun6 June 11:45

        What is there to do in terms of history and culture etc? Also hard to do that sort of stuff in 50 degrees.

        Staying in a hotel all the time whilst on holiday isn’t for me! (But I get that some like doing that sort of stuff)

        • Paul says:

          6 Jun6 June 17:41

          I suggest you google Al Ula and have a look at the remains of the nabatean tribe.

          It was more organised than Petra, far less tacky souvenir stalls and overpriced donkeys.

          All in all most of my experiences in Saudi Arabia have been positive. They still lack some infrastructure at times. I hired a car with Europcar who used a local company, wouldn’t accept either my UK license or International License because the number would not fit into the computer!

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      6 Jun6 June 13:16

      Re China’s century, Dubai Terminal 1 is increasingly feeling like the Chinese terminal. Chocka with tour groups and the sense of entitlement to in effect own the airport at that arrival time rather astonished me. I was physically barred and slapped back from trying to get on the transit monorail and every elevator from gate area satellite building through to the immigration queue where a few of them squeezed themselves around tensabarrier poles to get ahead of the few Europeans that had managed to end up at immigration at the same time as them.

    • Novice says:

      6 Jun6 June 13:41

      I get what you mean @Rob but not everyone goes traveling to sit in hotels or go shopping.

      The reason the quality of hotels are better in comparison to Europe and other continents is due to the fact that a lot of time needs to be spent in the hotels/resorts.

      Dubai had an advantage that they were the first as a ME destination. qatar had advantage for flights that they were better product… Saudi Arabia has a few places that would be point of interest to hardcore travelers but they are too late in terms of maximising the tourism.

      It doesn’t help that MBS is the ruler seen as he may be a M…….

      I’m not saying that ME is about to be abandoned in the droves due to heat etc but this is a start up with a vision; I’m just pointing out maybe that vision is flawed.

      If they expected ppl to flock there as tourists when they decided they would build a mega city they should have built underground because what’s the difference if everything is fake anyway.

      • GeoffreyB says:

        6 Jun6 June 13:46

        “I get what you mean @Rob but not everyone goes traveling to sit in hotels or go shopping.”

        😱

  • HBommie says:

    6 Jun6 June 11:31

    I’m old enough to remember the days of spanish holidays on a coach (not in coach) being exotic and the huge shift in globalisation of the industry along with everything else. I can’t see that desire to travel reducing any time soon.

    IMO the response to the climate lobby will be to shift to a ‘greener’ solution rather than a reduction in travel.

    • Erico1875 says:

      6 Jun6 June 12:02

      Did several of these when the kids were younger to Costa Brava/Daurada.
      I think we went, family of 5 for 10 days for about £250.
      http://www.siestaholidays.co.uk

      • HBommie says:

        6 Jun6 June 12:15

        🙂

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      6 Jun6 June 15:39

      Lol yes and Judith Chalmers sat by a pool saying things like “the water is safe to drink” and “the food whilst not what we’re used to at home is delicious” before knocking back a glug of wine!

• Ironside says:

  6 Jun6 June 13:16

  Should we read into anything that the pictured aircraft has a US registration number? Or is that just for delivery?

  • Rhys says:

    6 Jun6 June 13:57

    It’s not clear if this aircraft is even destined for Riyadh Air, or whether it’s just demonstrating the livery. Not due to start operations until 2025, so even if it is destined for RX it’s probably not going there any time soon.

    • Nick says:

      6 Jun6 June 13:59

      All Boeings have a N-reg while they’re being built and tested.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      6 Jun6 June 16:10

      Painting and then repainting a plane is a pretty expensive thing to do so chances are this is one of their planes unless they really are flush with cash.

      Then again paying to do this sort of thing is a good way of turning a huge pile of cash into a small one!

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