Lufthansa Munich to Riyadh Route Launch: New A350 Service Starting October 2025

One of regions Lufthansa is not the strongest in is the Middle East. Coverage is good in the mediterranean middle east, less in the Arabian Peninsula where it only serves very few destinations. However, come October 2026 there will be a new pin on the Lufthansa route network map in the region with the new Munich to Riyadh service.

Lufthansa Expands Arabian Peninsula Network

Saudi Arabia is becoming a central destination in relation to travel and aviation. I'll go more into detail later in this post about that is becoming the case. Looking at Lufthansa's route network in the Arabian Peninsula there is one noticeable void left: currently the capital of Saudi Arabia isn't served from Lufthansa's Munich Hub. Yes that's right Lufthansa doesn't have any flights to Riyadh from Munich.

However, that is soon to change with a new flight set to takeoff from Munich to Riyadh in the fall of 2025. The launch date for the new Lufthansa Munich to Riyadh flight LH640 will be October 26th 2025.

Departure and Arrival Times

The timings of the flights are primarily optimized to facilitate onwards travel on Lufthansa flights upon arrival in Munich.

A mid morning landing in Munich International Airport will enables passengers to transfer onto short and medium haul flights to all over Europe, or even onto long haul services across the Atlantic. That evening departure will be very useful to funnel passengers from European services onto this flight to Riyadh.

LH640 flight from Munich to Riyadh will expand the possibilities of traveling to Riyadh with Lufthansa, beyond the only flight currently served daily from Frankfurt.

Three Weekly Frequencies

LH640 from Munich to Riyadh will differ from the flight originating in Frankfurt in terms of weekly frequency. While the Frankfurt to Riyadh flight (which then continues onwards to Dammam and back) is a daily service the new flight from Munich will only operate three times weekly. Flights will be available every:

• Tuesday
• Thursday
• Sunday

Airbus A350-900 Aircraft and Cabin Configuration

Lufthansa will be utilizing on its new Munich to Riyadh service (LH640) the backbone of its long haul operations, the Airbus A350-900. That will provide a much better travel experience compared to that on flights from Frankfurt to Riyadh which are still served by the Airbus A340-600 (an aircraft type soon to be retired). However, it's not as good as it could get.

Modern Long-Haul Aircraft Features

Despite this being the most modern aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet lineup, while waiting for the first Boeing 777X to be delivered, it doesn't offer the most up to date cabin configuration. Not in the setup flying from Munich to Riyadh starting October 26th at least.

Three-Class Cabin Configuration

Lufthansa has its Airbus A350-900s configured in 2 different layouts. One features a 4 class configuration which includes the new Allegris cabins, while the other has a much older 3 class setup which will also be the one flying from Munich to Riyadh on service LH640.

This configurations features:

Business class doesn't provide a particularly private experience, not what you'd experience on many other options between Europe and the Middle East. That 2-2-2 layout is very densely packed in the front portion of the aircraft and doesn't ensure direct aisle access to all passengers.

Why Riyadh Matters: Strategic Importance

I touched on it earlier in this post but let's talk more in depth of why Saudi Arabia and Riyadh specifically are becoming a strategically important destination. Starting from Saudi Arabia.

KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) has been investing heavily to diversify its economy moving away from the mere extraction and exporting of fossil fuels. It has invested in high tech industries and has also become a financial and cultural hotspot in the region. The country aims to become a prime tourist destination within the end of the 2020s. Finally KSA will host world famous events such as the Expo and the football world cup in the span of the next 9 years.

Honing in on the aviation industry there's another region for Riyadh being a massively important destination is that soon it will be home to a very ambitious new airline. Riyadh Air will be soon starting operations out of Riyadh international airport and has the ambition to become the new big airline in the region, looking to disrupt the current status quo. Lufthansa launching this flight seems a move to win over market share before the new kid comes to the block.