According to media reports on Saturday (November 11th), multiple insiders revealed that Saudi Arabian airline Riyadh Air is about to order up to 100 Boeing 737 Max jets to expand its short-haul fleet.
From November 13th to 17th, the biennial Dubai Air Show will be held at Dubai's Al Maktoum Airport. These insiders said that Riyadh Airlines is considering finalizing confirmed orders for 50 aircraft at this year's air show and reserves the option to purchase nearly 50 more aircraft.
They added that internal discussions are still ongoing and the final quantity may vary slightly. It is worth mentioning that Riyadh Airlines, which is about to purchase so many planes, has been established for less than 8 months now.
In March of this year, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund "Public Investment Fund" (PIF) announced the establishment of Riyadh Airlines. The official website states that the company's goal is to open flights to over 100 destinations worldwide by 2030 and double the annual passenger count to 330 million.
At that time, PIF also appointed Tony Douglas, former CEO of Atihad Airways, as the CEO of the new company. Douglas announced last week that the company has ordered 72 Boeing 787 wide body aircraft, followed by narrow body aircraft.
He added that Riyadh Airways is purchasing a "large number" of single aisle aircraft, and pointed out that these aircraft come from the same manufacturer, but did not disclose the name of the manufacturer or the specific models purchased. The report states that according to some insiders, this company is Boeing.
They explained that part of the reason why Riyadh Airlines chose Boeing was because Airbus was unable to deliver the A320 series aircraft in the near future, and Boeing's competitor had been sold out by 2030. It is expected that multiple China Eastern airlines will announce aircraft orders at next week's Dubai Air Show.
As part of Prince Mohammed bin Salman's "2030 Vision", Saudi Arabia is seeking to achieve ambitious goals in the aviation industry: to more than double the annual air passenger flow to 330 million people by 2030, and also hopes to transport up to 5 million tons of air cargo annually.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has attempted to position Riyadh as a competitor to Dubai, the commercial center. In order to establish its own aviation network, Riyadh Airways needs to challenge Emirates, Qatar Airways, and CEO Douglas' former owner Atihad Airways in the region.
Cailian News Agency previously mentioned that in the first half of this year, the number of international flight passengers in Saudi Arabia increased by 52%, with a passenger flow of 7.4 million, indicating that Saudi Arabia's efforts to achieve the goal of "global transportation hub" have achieved further results.