Saudia, Its Fleet and Evolution Waiting for Riyadh Air

Saudia, also known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, is currently the sole flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. I used the word currently as a new carrier is preparing to launch within the next year. Riyadh Air will work along side Saudia as a second flag carrier in the effort to put Saudi Arabia on the map as an aviation powerhouse. However, in this post I’ll be focusing solely on Saudia and its aircraft fleet and how it operates it.

Saudia a Mixed Fleet for Extremely Varied Operations

What makes Saudia interesting is the variaty of its operations. The carrier is not just a simple airline it also is the operator of choice for many making the pilgrimage trip to Makkah.

As we’ll later see that means that the airline operates some classic aircraft for these special services. Also, Saudia connects Saudi Arabia to the most important cities across the globe.

However, the plan to make of it a competitor to the other Gulf carriers never really took off. The Saudi flag carrier remained somewhere in no man’s land between remaining a rather small operation and becoming a powerhouse in middle eastern aviation as a super connector as some of its peers mastered instead.

That might all change with the new plans the Saudi government has for the aviation market in the country. The plan is to make of Saudi Arabia a worldwide tourist destination and an aviation hub. The aim is to achieve that by founding a new airline to with different branding and values to the legacy national carrier. This new operator will be Riyadh Air owned by the sovereign fund PIF.

Saudia’s Fleet Part 1: A Streamlined Narrow-Body Fleet For Short and Medium-Haul Operations

The Saudia short range fleet only features Airbus manufactured planes. The main use for these planes is to serve short and medium-haul destinations in both the Gulf region and across Europe and India. These planes are perfect to serve routes or services that generally have lower passenger volumes. More specifically the Saudia short range fleet features:

Manufacturer	Type	Units	J-Seats	Y-Seats
Airbus	A321neo	10	20	145
Airbus	A321-200	14	20	145
Airbus	A320-200	37	12/20	90/120/132

J-Seats = Business Class
Y-Seats = Economy Class

The A321neo are the latest addition to the fleet with a configuration same to the one fitted on the older A321ceo. That means 20 Business Class seats in a 2-2 layout and an Economy Class cabin seating up to 145 passengers in a 3-3 layout.

There are, however, some narrow-body planes that differ in configuration. Some of the A320ceo planes, instead of the recliner chairs, are fitted with a 2-2 layout with full flat bed capable seats. These are planes such as registration number HZ-ASA, fitted with 20 seats in Business class and 90 in Economy.

Saudia Fleet Part 2: A Very Unique Mix of Wide-Body Aircraft

The wide-body fleet is where things really get interesting and we’ve got a little more to talk about. Saudia’s fleet features both Airbus and Boeing planes to cover its operational needs.

One operational need though is quite unique to this airline: pilgrimage flights. Hajj flights (pilgrimage to Makkah), require some real heavy weights to move the huge number of people that make their way to Saudi Arabia. To cover this very unique operational need the airline still operates, albeit in a wetlease, two Boeing 747-400s in a super high density configuration. These two Queens of the Skies feature a super-tiny business class cabin of only 16 seats with a massive 449 seat economy class cabin.

Manufacturer	Type	Units	F-Seats	J-Seats	Y-Seats
Boeing	777-300ER	37	0/12	36/30/14/12	242/351/383/393/478
Airbus	A330-300	33	–	36/30	252/262/300
Boeing	787-9	13	–	24	274
Boeing	787-10	8	–	21	333
Boeing	747-400	2	–	16	449
Boeing	777-200ER	2

The highest density Boeing 777 featuring only 12 Business class seats and 478 economy seats is also operated under a wet-lease. This plane is also set up for Hajj (pilgrimage) flights.

A Further Evolving Fleet?

Its very likely that we’ll see more news coming regarding Saudia. The fleet will evolve rapidly in coming years. I’ll be on the constant lookout for news and interesting insights. Not to miss any, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter using the form in the site’s footer.