Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman smiles as he arrives on the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 28, 2022 for a gathering with the French President.
Bertrand Guay | Afp | Getty Images
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman formally announced on Sunday the creation of a latest national airline, Riyadh Air, with industry veteran Tony Douglas as its chief executive, as the dominion moves to compete with regional transport and travel hubs.
Riyadh Air will serve greater than 100 destinations all over the world by 2030, making use of the dominion’s location between Asia, Africa and Europe, state news agency SPA said.
The brand new airline is predicted so as to add $20 billion to Saudi Arabia’s non-oil GDP growth and create greater than 200,000 jobs each directly and not directly, it said.
The announcement may result in a tougher battle for passengers, going head-to-head with regional giants Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines because the travel industry recovers from the pandemic.
Riyadh Air is wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has greater than $600 billion in assets and is the principal driver of the dominion’s efforts to diversify its economy and wean itself off oil.
In October, Saudi Arabia was in advanced negotiations to order almost 40 A350 jets from Airbus, with Boeing also lobbying for a slice of the dominion’s transportation expansion, industry sources had told Reuters.
The pinnacle of state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) told Reuters on the time that it was in talks with Boeing and Airbus on orders each for itself and a planned latest carrier.
