RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s new national airline, Riyadh Air, plans next year to order wide-body aircraft capable of seating more than 300 passengers, its chief financial officer told AFP on Thursday. The order would be the third for the airline, which was created last year and plans to operate its first flights in the summer of 2025.

“We will do our third RFP for an ultimate ultra wide body, which has in excess of 300 seats as well, but that will be next year,” Adam Boukadida said on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative investor forum in Riyadh, referring to the request for proposal procurement document.

“It could be Boeing, it could be Airbus. At the moment, we’re very happy having the relationship with both of these key suppliers.” On Wednesday, Riyadh Air announced a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase 60 narrow-body Airbus A321neo aircraft from Airbus.

That brought the firm’s total aircraft orders to 132 after a deal inked last year with Boeing for 39 wide-body Dreamliner 787-9s, which seat just under 300 passengers, with options for 33 more jets. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sees aviation as a key component of his “Vision 2030” reform agenda to remake the petroleum-dominated country, aiming to more than triple annual traffic to 330 million passengers by the end of the decade.

Riyadh Air expects to serve 100 routes by 2030 and more than 120 by 2035. It has not disclosed the routes. Deliveries of the Airbus planes “will start from the second half of 2026 all the way out to 2030,” Boukadida said.

“This will bring us in excess of 130 aircraft before 2030, so we’re still on track for the second half of next year to commence operations to over 100 destinations by 2030.” Also on Thursday, Riyadh Air announced the establishment of its first revolving credit facility of up to 5 billion Saudi riyals ($1.3 billion) involving eight financial institutions from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.

“This would help us fund our growth, but also provide a platform for us to grow up until 2030 to be an international player,” Boukadida said. — AFP