Riyadh Air announced on 7 August that it will start flying between Riyadh and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi on 2 September 2026, with three flights a week on the Boeing 787-9, according to CAPA. A daily service to Manila is scheduled to follow from 9 September, also on the 787-9, Aeroroutes reports.
The two routes take Saudi Arabia's new airline into South-East Asia less than three months after its first scheduled flight. Riyadh Air began scheduled operations on 10 June with a daily service to London Heathrow, initially using three 787s, and has added a destination every few weeks since.
For travellers in the Gulf, the news means a new full-service option out of Riyadh, and more direct choices from the Saudi capital into Asia. It is also the clearest sign yet of how quickly the airline is building its hub.
Eight weeks, six cities
After London on 10 June, the network grew quickly:
- Jeddah, from 15 June
- Dubai, daily from 19 June
- Cairo, daily from 29 June
- Malaga, from 17 July
- Mumbai, daily from 5 August
Jeddah, Dubai and Cairo link Riyadh with close neighbours, while London, Malaga and Mumbai carry the network into Europe and India. Dubai, Cairo and Mumbai were all launched as daily services.
Riyadh Air is owned by the Public Investment Fund and was announced in March 2023 as the kingdom's second national carrier, based in Riyadh. Like the Gulf's established hub airlines, it relies on onward connections through its home airport, so each new city in Asia also feeds the flights west to London, Cairo and Malaga. The model is simple: passengers change aircraft in Riyadh, so a traveller from Mumbai can continue to London or Cairo on the same airline.
Bangkok, three times a week
The Bangkok flights are scheduled to start on 2 September, three times a week. Suvarnabhumi is the Thai capital's main international airport. Riyadh Air will not have the route to itself: Saudia also flies between Riyadh and Bangkok, according to OAG schedule data cited by CAPA.
That makes Bangkok a direct test of the new airline against the established Saudi carrier, on a route where travellers from Riyadh already have a direct option. For passengers, two airlines on the same route mean a wider choice of schedules. Bangkok is also the airline's second step east after Mumbai, which opened on 5 August, with Manila due a week later.
Manila, every day
Manila is due to get a daily service from 9 September. According to Aeroroutes, flight RX873 is scheduled to leave Riyadh at 01:05 and reach Manila at 15:55 local time. The return, RX874, is due to leave Manila at 17:25 and land in Riyadh at 22:15.
Allowing for the five-hour time difference, that is a scheduled journey of just under ten hours each way. The pattern is an overnight departure from Riyadh, an afternoon arrival in Manila, and a same-day return that lands in the Saudi capital in the evening.
Unlike Bangkok, Manila starts as a daily route, which makes it the larger of the two commitments.
Pakistan this month, Africa next year
Pakistan comes first. Islamabad is scheduled from 14 August, with four flights a week at first, and Lahore from 18 August, three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Further ahead, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia is planned for 1 January 2027, which would take the network into East Africa. With Mumbai already flying, the two Pakistani cities will give the airline three destinations in South Asia.
Counting Bangkok, Manila and the two Pakistani cities, the airline now has at least ten destinations flying or scheduled, with Addis Ababa to follow. CAPA reports that chief executive Tony Douglas expects 22 destinations by March 2027.
A small fleet with large plans
All of this rests on a small fleet: seven Boeing 787-9s, backed by a technical spare aircraft provided by Oman Air. A technical spare is a reserve aircraft that stands in when one of the airline's own is out of service. The new routes are all flown with the 787-9 in the airline's latest cabin interiors. Further growth depends on deliveries from Boeing and Airbus that are still pending, and those deliveries will decide how quickly the rest of the 22-destination target arrives.
For Gulf travellers, the practical picture is already changing. Riyadh-based travellers gain a new full-service choice for Asia, and travellers from the UAE can reach Riyadh on the airline's daily Dubai flights. The new routes also put a Saudi full-service airline in direct competition with the Gulf's established hubs for travellers moving between Europe and Asia.
The Bangkok and Manila routes are scheduled rather than flown, and the pace from here depends on new aircraft. But the direction is set. In two months, a single daily flight to London has grown into a network that will soon reach from Malaga to Manila.
Sources: CAPA, Aeroroutes, Economy Class and Beyond