Riyadh Air, it's official: first takeoff Oct. 26 for London, but for a month it will be impossible to fly there. FFP presented.
It is now official. Three years after its 'birth' announcement, Riyadh Air will launch its first flight on Oct. 26, [...]
Riyadh Air
RUH
It is now official. Three years after its 'birth' announcement, Riyadh Air will launch its first flight on Oct. 26, coinciding with the start of Winter 2025-2026, to London.
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But, as we ourselves at The Flight Club had written early last August, will be forced to do so with the Boeing 787-9, christened 'Jamila,' which it had leased from Oman Air a few months ago for staff training and then to be used as 'relief aircraft' in the embryonic stages of its fleet development.
The Saudi carrier, in fact, weeks ago was awarded a pair of slots at London's Heathrow Airport which are not only the most difficult and most expensive to obtain, but are also subjects to strict rules as to their use: in particular to the '80/20 rule' according to which a company, if it does not use at least 80% of the slots it has, loses them. Which would happen to Riyadh Air if it had to wait for the certification of its first 'real' Dreamliner, which is still being certified e will not be available until December.
So, after much media and social batting about the new super cabins, the most anticipated airline of the year will welcome its first paying passengers on Oct. 26 aboard a 787-9 that is in Oman Air livery and has the Sultanate carrier's interior as well?
No, that will not be the case. Hear, hear, Riyadh Air has officially announced that for the first few weeks and until its first 787 enters service, it will make available (or for sale, but at special prices) seats on board 'Jamila' to staff of the airline and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, at the same time implementing in-flight service with real passengers to be ready in the best possible way when the owned 787 becomes available.
In short, de facto Oman Air's Dreamliner will be used to 'hold the place' for the Saudi carrier at Heathrow: something that financially only the Saudis could have thought of doing, so much money 'stinks' to them.
Riyadh Air also reported that. When his 787 goes to Riyadh-London-Riyadh, 'Jamila' will be moved to Riyadh-Dubai-Riyadh, while from the third Dreamliner onward, Oman Air's will actually be employed in the role for which it was leased, namely that of 'backup aircraft' should one of the new 787s in Riyadh Air livery be grounded due to technical problems.
The timetable for the London connection is the one we also 'overlooked' at the beginning of August: flight RX401 will take off from the Saudi capital at 3:10 a.m. (not exactly a very convenient time, if we must be honest) to land at 7:30 a.m. at Heathrow, from where it will depart at 9:30 a.m. to return to Riyadh at 7:15 p.m.
At the same time as the date of the first flight, the carrier announced the name and some content of its loyalty program, which will be called Sfeer (which stands for 'ambassador' in Arabic but also sounds like 'sphere' in English) and to which it is already possible to sign up on the company's website thus receiving the honorary title of 'Founder'.
Little is yet known about the program, except that Will have three status levels (which will be called Silver, Gold and Platinum, according to Head for Points), that the points collected will not expire and that members will enjoy free wifi on board all flights.
The most innovative thing is that points collected and benefits derived from status in the program can be shared with other members of the program, primarily of course family and friends. Points will be earned based on spending on the cost of the ticket (tot money spent for tot points). As for collaboration with other carriers, Riyadh Air has already announced those with Air France/KLM, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic, but nothing has been said about the carrier joining the Skyteam alliance, which by the way would be the same one that Saudia is enrolled in and thus would make little sense.
