Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier Riyadh Air is behind some of August’s most significant additions during a quieter month for new route launches.
The airline will add four new destinations as it continues the buildup of its network following the start of commercial operations earlier this year. The airline will launch daily Boeing 787-9 flights from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Mumbai, India on Aug. 4 and Dhaka, Bangladesh on Aug. 7, followed by daily service to Islamabad, Pakistan on Aug. 14 and 3X-weekly flights to Lahore, Pakistan beginning Aug. 16.
The expansion will increase Riyadh Air’s network to nine destinations and forms part of its strategy to grow from six cities at launch to 22 destinations by March 2027 before ultimately serving more than 100 international cities by the end of the decade.
The South Asian additions target some of the largest expatriate and labor markets in Saudi Arabia while also strengthening Riyadh’s position as a connecting hub between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The carrier says the Pakistan routes will serve business, leisure, labor and visual flight rules traffic.
The network expansion comes only weeks after Riyadh Air at the Farnborough Airshow firmed an order for six additional Airbus A350-1000s and exercised options for 28 787s. The carrier also recently secured regulatory approval to launch services to Beijing and Shanghai, as well as authority to begin operations to the U.S.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Etihad Airways will continue its push into Central Asia with the launch of daily Abu Dhabi-Tashkent, Uzbekistan flights on Aug. 9. The service coincides with the start of a new codeshare partnership with Uzbekistan Airways, giving Etihad passengers single-ticket access to eight destinations across Uzbekistan while opening Abu Dhabi and Etihad’s network to customers of the Uzbek carrier.
In Europe, Condor Airlines launched daily Frankfurt-Tel Aviv service on Aug. 1. The route marks the German leisure carrier’s return to Israel during its 70th anniversary year and restores a destination that featured in Condor’s inaugural flight in 1956.
Elsewhere, a notable development is the continued reopening of Syria’s international air links. SunExpress started 2X-weekly services from Antalya and Izmir (both in Turkey), to Aleppo, Syria on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, respectively, becoming one of the latest international carriers to return to the northern Syrian city. Flynas has also added Riyadh-Aleppo flights from Aug. 1.
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