Riyadh Air

And, and I would also say that on the whole, there's been much less movement on the other two components, the settle and the deliver.

Um, you know, obviously someone like Riyadh Air who's coming on a greenfield site, they have had to go with a new, a new delivery system and indeed a new accounting system.

But for the established airlines who are replacing the existing systems, less movement, which also then throws up a question in my mind, when those airlines have moved to the Nevio order management system, will Amadeus be in a position to m- modify its, the Altair DCS to actually accept order-based delivery? Because it looks really quite different.

Yeah.

But, you know, is there a, is there nevertheless a knock on effect? If you've got problems in Saudi airspace, problems with King Khaled International Airport, do you therefore have problems across, you know, does it ripple out into the wider networks?

I'm not sure that it does, because obviously with big airlines like Saudi and obviously the new Saudi upstart Riyadh Air trying to emulate the kind of success that Emirates has garnered out of Dubai International, because they don't seem to have the same footprint, as it were, whatever kind of disruption it is will largely be localized to domestic and some intra-GCC travel.

But it wouldn't have a greater knock-on effect to other Arab carriers' like Qatar or Etihad or Emirates or even Omania, because you have to remember that whilst we have daily flights going between all of the GCC states going across Saudi, you know, Riyadh is just one touchpoint amongst many.

So the limited scope of disruption would quite simply mean that it's It's localized.

Spotify is part of your name.

It is the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.

No longer one of the – so it's the Riyadh Air.

What's Riyadh? Is that Saudi?

Yeah, Saudi.

Yeah.

So whatever that airline, Riyadh Air Metropolitano.

That's what it is now.

The documents also re- reveal that sponsorship accounted for 49% of LIV's revenue in 2025.

Now Joel Beadel posted, "What's not said is that the LIV sponsors were Saudi-backed enterprises like Aramco, Madden, Riyadh Air, and Russian Group, all of which have huge ties to the kingdom."

Yeah.

So it's, they're not what I would call true sponsors.

Okay, sure, there's some of those.

There's Riyadh Air, there's Roshan, Aramco.

Yes, they were sponsors, but it doesn't stop there.

We have HSBC who may potentially be the biggest sponsor moving forward.

And yes, we've got more more ways to expand that but at the same time if we can't match the sort of figures that they're getting we're always going to be stuck with it and that's the frustrating part for me and it does suck out the fun of the game and it's not just us Newcastle supporters saying it it's football supporters up and down the land and across around the globe all saying the same thing if you've got a level playing field fair enough be the best but if you're restricted it's not allowing Liverpool to have that and we need to be careful because Turkish Airlines are willing to give them that money.

But I know Mitch and myself and Steve Hastie have alluded to many times over the last few months, Riyadh Air were very, very strongly reported to be giving us a similar deal and it was rejected.

So tell me how that's fair.

Yeah, it's not there, but we're used to it now.

This is the Saudi Arabia daily news briefing for Thursday, September 10th.

Today, a new mechanism for maritime war risk insurance, Riyadh Air's Manila launch, practical support for cultural enterprises, trade remedies readiness, and a measured approach to artificial intelligence in aviation.

Together, the stories show how risk capacity, connectivity and operating discipline can shape growth.

First, Saudi Arabia has approved a National Marine War Risks Insurance Pool for cargo and ship hulls.

The broader value will depend on whether the mechanism adds dependable capacity when geopolitical risk tightens global insurance markets.

Importers should also review delivery terms and financing documents because responsibility for obtaining insurance can sit with different parties across a single transaction.

Second, Riyadh Air has started direct flights between Riyadh and Manila, its 13th network destination and 7th in Asia.

The route is operating four times a week with Boeing 787 aircraft and is planned to become daily from October 19th.

Yeah, and it's

Riyadh Air.

Riyadh Air.

So they are, I mean, look, they're trying to rival Qatar, Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines.

They're trying to rival all these airlines.

And then you have Sudanese people enrolled in schools here.

But also, going back to what you were saying, Majid, about Saudi, For me, it's seeing that Riyadh Air still went with their launch.

And now we're hearing that they're unlocking 19 new destinations.

But I think for me, something that I actually didn't know was that the former head of editorial content of Vogue Arabia was a Saudi.