Saudi startup airline Riyadh Air has pushed back its launch date from mid-2025 to the third quarter of the year. The delay comes as a result of delays to 787-9 deliveries.
“Major parts of the first aircraft are already prepared for final assembly and given well-known global supply chain challenges, we expect delivery to start in third quarter, facilitating the start of operations soon after,” a spokesperson for the airline told Airline Economics.
The spokesperson said the airline “remains on track for launch 2025 despite industry challenges”.
“The arrival of the first 787-9 will allow operations to commence as soon as possible, and we remain in close contact with our colleagues at Boeing with the aim to receive a number of aircraft later this year,” the spokesperson said.
Riyadh Air ordered 39 787s with options for 33 more in 2023, with the first deliveries scheduled for early 2025. A report from Bloomberg claimed just four are scheduled for delivery this year. In 2024, Boeing delivered a total of 29 787-9s.
“Aircraft is always a principal issue,” Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas said at an Aviation Club lunch in November last year. “We cannot operate until we take our first three aircraft. With the third aircraft, we're up and running, and in the game. We will get widebody deliveries from Boeing [in 2025]."
The airline is expected to receive its air operator certificate “in the coming weeks” while over 60 cabin and flight crew have already joined the team, with cabins and products expected to be showcased in the coming months.
At the Aviation Club event, Douglas confirmed the airline is in now seeking another widebody order, with an aircraft order announcement expected next year. Douglas said it was between either the A350-1000s or the 777X jets.
“The [widebody] campaign will determine what the right answer is to that question,” Douglas had said. He underpinned the fact that the airline had to get its network to 100 international cities within the first years and would need a “sizeable fleet”.
Riyadh Air had already taken delivery of its technical spare 787-9 aircraft, which does not feature the airline's cabin interiors.
The aircraft is separate from the original order of 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Instead, it will be used initially as part of it obtaining its air operator certificate (AOC) with the General Authority of Civil Aviation to allow operations to commence, before operating as a technical spare.
The airline also made a firm order for 60 A321neo family at the end of last year.