Riyadh Air

New airlines of this size are rare. Riyadh Air is one: a network airline that did not grow out of an existing carrier but was drawn up from scratch – with Saudi state money, a new hub in Riyadh and large orders from Boeing and Airbus. For spotters that means you can be there when an airline’s first registrations, liveries and routes make their way into the logbooks. This page sums up what is documented, how to recognize Riyadh Air and where to catch it in Europe.

Riyadh Air at a glance

Riyadh Air is a Saudi network airline based at, and with its hub in, Riyadh. It is owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. The airline was publicly unveiled in March 2023 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Its CEO is Tony Douglas, who previously ran Etihad Airways.

The idea behind it is strategic: Saudi Arabia wants to establish Riyadh as a major transfer hub between Europe, Africa and Asia – much as the Gulf airlines have done in Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi. How this model works is explained in the article on the business model of the Gulf airlines. The existing national airline Saudia remains in place; its main hub is in Jeddah, and it operates in parallel as the country’s second major network airline.

It took longer than originally announced for Riyadh Air to actually take off. In June 2023 the airline received the IATA code RX and presented a first livery on a Boeing 787-9 that never joined the fleet. In January 2025 it took over its first aircraft, a 787-9 leased from Oman Air, and in April 2025 the Saudi aviation authority granted approval for flight operations. From late October 2025 Riyadh Air then flew between Riyadh and London Heathrow – at first only on a small scale. Regular scheduled service open to public booking started only on June 10, 2026, again with Heathrow as the first route.

Codes, registrations and trackers

• IATA code RX: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board and in the ticket, for example on the flights between Riyadh and London.
• ICAO code RXI: used by air traffic control in the flight plan; many flight trackers show it as a callsign prefix.
• Registration HZ-: Saudi Arabia issues aircraft registrations with the prefix HZ-. The first 787-9s of Riyadh Air’s own carry the registrations HZ-RXAA and HZ-RXAB.

With codeshare flights it pays to look twice: since late August 2026, passengers can book connecting flights operated by Saudia from Riyadh under an RX flight number. So an RX number does not automatically mean a Riyadh Air aircraft is flying. On the tracker, the ICAO code shows which airline actually operates the flight. How to read such data sensibly is covered in the guide to flight tracking for spotters.

The fleet: Boeing 787-9 – and a lot on order

On scheduled service Riyadh Air has so far used a single type: the Boeing 787-9. The first two brand-new aircraft were delivered on June 5, 2026 – one departed from Charleston, the other from Everett near Seattle, and both flew directly to Riyadh. In early October 2026 the airline cited a fleet of ten aircraft; other reports from the same time speak of eight Dreamliners. The exact number varies depending on whether leased aircraft are counted – and it is growing almost monthly right now.

Riyadh Air’s 787-9s are powered by GEnx-1B engines from GE Aerospace. The engine contract was signed at the Paris Air Show in June 2023.

Type	Status (as of October 2026)	Use	Spotter note
Boeing 787-9	in service, initial order in 2023 for 39 plus options	Long-haul and medium-haul from Riyadh	Only type on scheduled service, GEnx engines
Airbus A321neo	60 on order (October 2024)	Short and medium-haul	Not yet in scheduled service
Airbus A350-1000	25 on order plus purchase rights (June 2025)	Long-haul	Not yet in scheduled service

The orders show where the airline is headed: with the A321neo Riyadh Air wants to serve regional destinations, and with the A350-1000 its longest and strongest routes. That will make Riyadh Air a mixed-fleet operator of both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. According to Reuters, the airline was also considering further 787 orders. Riyadh Air has named more than 100 destinations by 2030 as its goal.

787-9 or A350? How to sort them reliably

As long as Riyadh Air flies only the 787-9, identifying the type is easy. It gets more interesting once the A350-1000s arrive – because the two long-haul types look similar at first glance. The article A350 or Boeing 787? explains this in detail.

For the 787 itself, telling it apart from the shorter 787-8 and the longer 787-10 helps if you photograph Riyadh Air alongside other Dreamliner operators – more on the page for the Boeing 787-9.

How to recognize Riyadh Air

The standard livery is mostly white with Riyadh Air titles. Many airlines have a white base – but at Riyadh Air there is the added fact that on scheduled service almost only the 787-9 has been seen so far. A white Dreamliner with an HZ registration on the tail: that already makes the identification fairly safe. Why so many airlines go for white is explained in the article Why aircraft are painted white.

It gets exciting with the second livery. In early October 2026 Riyadh Air showed its first 787-9 in a blue-violet shade called indigo, painted at the Boeing plant in Charleston. The airline describes the design as inspired by desert flowers in spring and by Arabic calligraphy. According to Riyadh Air, about one in ten aircraft is to carry this variant – so the indigo aircraft deliberately stay rare. How to track down such liveries is covered in the guide Finding special liveries.

Hub Riyadh

The home airport is King Khalid International Airport (RUH), about 35 kilometers north of Riyadh. The airport has two parallel runways in direction 15/33. Riyadh Air uses Terminal 2 for international and Terminal 3 for domestic flights. In the long term, Saudi Arabia plans a much larger airport, King Salman International Airport, on the site of the current one.

In mid-October 2026 RUH made the headlines for a serious reason: after missile attacks by the Houthi militia on Saudi airports, Riyadh airport was temporarily closed. Riyadh Air canceled numerous flights and moved its Dreamliners to other airports, including Jeddah, Medina, Al-Ula and Lahore. When operations in Riyadh will run normally again was unclear at the time of writing. If you are planning a Riyadh Air sighting in Europe, make sure to check shortly beforehand that the flight is actually operating.

Route network: where to spot Riyadh Air in Europe

The network has been growing week by week since June 2026. According to the sources reviewed, Riyadh Air flies (as of mid-October 2026) to Cairo, Dubai, Jeddah, Mumbai, Islamabad, Lahore, Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Bangkok, among others. Jakarta follows from November 16, 2026, according to the schedule. In Europe the picture looks like this:

Airport	Status (as of October 2026)	Note
London Heathrow	daily since June 10, 2026	From November 2, 2026, nine instead of seven flights per week
Manchester	in the network	Easy to photograph from the Runway Visitor Park
Madrid-Barajas	in the network	Long-haul mix with many other 787s
Málaga	seasonal in summer 2026	Summer flights between July and September
Milan Malpensa	from December 16, 2026 according to the schedule	Four times a week with the 787-9

Heathrow is the safest bet. London was the airline’s first route and so far has the most flights. The additional rotations from November depart from Riyadh during the day, with the return flights in London falling at night. You will find good photo spots at Myrtle Avenue, and all the basics for the airport in the Heathrow guide. In Manchester the Runway Visitor Park is the most convenient choice, with more in the Manchester guide. In Madrid, La Muñoza is worth a visit when the runway direction in use is right.

According to the sources reviewed, Germany is not yet part of Riyadh Air’s network. If you want to see a Saudi Dreamliner there, you have better chances with Saudia.

Partners instead of an alliance

According to the sources reviewed (as of October 2026), Riyadh Air belongs to none of the three big alliances. Instead the airline is collecting bilateral partnerships. It has agreed a partnership with Delta Air Lines that includes codeshares. With Saudia a codeshare from Riyadh has been running since August 2026, and with All Nippon Airways there is a letter of intent on codeshare and mutual recognition of frequent flyer programs via the hubs in Riyadh and Tokyo. According to overviews, there are further partnerships with airlines from both major camps – SkyTeam as well as Star Alliance. An overview of the alliances is provided by the article Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.

The frequent flyer program is called Sfeer. In January 2026 Riyadh Air also announced a cargo division called Riyadh Cargo. Besides Saudia, Riyadh Air shares the Saudi market with the low-cost carriers flynas and flyadeal, which operate mainly on short and medium-haul routes.

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Riyadh Air for Saudia – both are Saudi network airlines, but Saudia also flies 777s and A330s and has its main hub in Jeddah. The registration HZ-RX.. and the code RXI belong to Riyadh Air.
• Assuming every RX flight number is a Riyadh Air flight – with codeshares, some of them are Saudia flights.
• Counting the Oman Air 787 – the leased aircraft from the early phase is not part of the airline’s own fleet.
• Logging the 2023 presentation aircraft – that 787-9 never came to Riyadh Air.
• Expecting the A321neo or A350 already – both types are on order; on scheduled service you currently see only the 787-9.
• Assigning Riyadh Air to an alliance – so far there are only individual partnerships.

Conclusion

Riyadh Air is an airline under construction – and that is exactly its appeal for spotters. The fleet so far consists of a few Boeing 787-9s, the HZ-RX.. registration series is only just beginning, and with the indigo livery there is already a rare variant. Anyone who collects now will later have an almost complete story in their logbook. The best chance in Europe is London Heathrow, plus Manchester, Madrid and, from December, Milan. The situation at the Riyadh hub in October 2026 also shows, though, that with such a young airline it pays to check the current schedule before every outing.