Saudi Arabia's new airline Riyadh Air is in the midst of a three-part inaugural fleet acquisition, including ongoing talks with Airbus and Boeing to buy a significant number of narrow-body jets. Chief Executive Tony Douglas declined to give the size of the planned follow-up order for narrowbody jets but said it was not going to be insignificant by any stretch of the imagination.
Bloomberg News reported last week that Boeing was working on a deal to sell at least 150 Boeing 737 MAX jets to Riyadh Air. The launch of a new airline is seen as a showcase for Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan to diversify from oil by fostering new industries that generate jobs and lure foreign capital. Douglas denied reports that Riyadh Air aimed to compete for connector traffic with Gulf Airways heavyweights Qatar Airways, Emirates, or Etihad, where he previously served as CEO.
Riyadh Air has announced that it will launch a network of narrowbody jets to serve the kingdom and its population, providing connectivity to the world and supporting the second-fastest-growing economy. Boeing's sweep of the lucrative Saudi widebody order was a blow for Airbus, which had been seen as likely to win at least part of the deal. Douglas denied that politics had played any part and said there was no way he was going to split the fleet.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where he was having discussions about codeshares. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said last month that a codeshare or technical cooperation was possible and that there was a lot of business around for everybody.