Saudi Arabia launches new national carrier Riyadh Air

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced the establishment of a new national carrier, Riyadh Air, taking the number of airlines operating out of the kingdom to four.

The new airline would be a wholly owned subsidiary of the PIF, and will use Riyadh as its hub. Saudi Arabia says the airline will connect passengers to over 100 destinations worldwide by 2030 and add $20bn to the country's non-oil GDP growth. It is also expected to create more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The airline will be chaired by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, while Tony Douglas, the former head of the UAE's Etihad Airways, has been appointed chief executive officer. The airline's senior management will include Saudi and international expertise, the PIF said.

Riyadh Air will look to leverage Saudi Arabia's strategic geographic location, at the crossroads between Asia, Africa and Europe, to help it become a global destination for transportation, trade, and tourism, Saudi state news agency Spa said.

The new airline represents the PIF's latest investment in the sector, alongside the King Salman International Airport master-plan that was announced in November last year. It is also very much in line with the kingdom's goal of becoming a global transportation and logistics hub, reaching 330mn passenger traffic by 2030, more than triple Saudi Arabia's overall passenger traffic of 103mn in 2019.

By Ieva Paldaviciute