Saudi Arabia is preparing for one of the most dramatic aviation expansions of the decade, with 2026 set to be a pivotal year. At the heart of this transformation is the launch of Riyadh Air’s full commercial operations alongside rapid growth at Saudia, flyadeal, flynas, and new long-haul links from partners such as Singapore Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Together, these carriers are laying the foundations for a new era of “boom travel” into and through the Kingdom, as the country races toward its Vision 2030 target of 150 million visitors.
Riyadh Air’s Long-Awaited Public Launch in 2026
Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s newest national carrier, has spent much of 2025 in a carefully controlled launch phase, flying its inaugural route between Riyadh and London Heathrow with limited access for employees of the airline and its owner, the Public Investment Fund. This soft start, using a Boeing 787-9 nicknamed “Jamila,” has allowed the carrier to test systems, train crews, and prove its schedule while protecting valuable Heathrow slots. The coming year, however, is about scaling up and opening its doors fully to global travelers.
The airline expects to begin selling tickets to the general public in the first quarter of 2026, once a minimum of three aircraft are in service and certified. Executives have been clear that this is the threshold needed to sustain a robust schedule on both London and Dubai routes and to uphold the premium service standards Riyadh Air has promised. For travelers, that timeline means that, by early 2026, Riyadh Air should transition from an intriguing newcomer to a genuine option in the competitive long-haul market.
Behind the scenes, Riyadh Air has already committed to one of the most ambitious fleet plans in the region. Orders spanning Boeing 787s and Airbus A350-1000s, with additional narrowbody aircraft to follow later in the decade, are designed to support a network of around 100 destinations by 2030. The carrier’s strategy is unapologetically global and squarely aimed at positioning the Saudi capital as a rival to long-established hubs in Doha and Dubai, reducing the need for Saudi travelers to connect via foreign gateways.
As the airline moves from trial flights to full-scale commercial operations in 2026, the industry will be watching closely to see how Riyadh Air differentiates itself. Early glimpses suggest a strong focus on digital experiences, a modern premium cabin, and close coordination with tourism authorities to promote the Kingdom’s new destinations to leisure and business travelers alike.
Saudia, flyadeal, and flynas Consolidate the Home Advantage
While Riyadh Air grabs headlines as the newest player, Saudi Arabia’s existing carriers are already deep into their own expansion cycles. Flag carrier Saudia has aligned itself closely with the Saudi Tourism Authority, unveiling aircraft carrying the “Visit Saudi” branding and expanding services designed to link key global markets with emerging destinations across the country. New long-haul rotations using Boeing 787-9 aircraft are helping to carry growing numbers of visitors from North America, Europe, and East Asia into the Kingdom.
By early 2026, Saudia’s international network is being recalibrated around Saudi Arabia’s tourism priorities, linking major inbound markets to cities such as Jeddah, Riyadh, and rapidly developing coastal and heritage hubs. The strategy increasingly views each route as more than a point-to-point service; instead, flights double as flying billboards for Saudi Arabia’s festivals, sports events, and cultural seasons that now run all year round in destinations from AlUla to the Red Sea coast.
Low-cost carriers flyadeal and flynas, meanwhile, are strengthening the domestic and regional backbone of this aviation surge. Their rapidly growing fleets and dense short-haul networks are crucial to distributing international arrivals beyond the main gateway cities. For many travelers landing on a long-haul flight with Riyadh Air or Saudia, a seamless same-day connection on flyadeal or flynas will be the link that carries them on to secondary cities, desert adventure hubs, or coastal resorts.
Together, these three Saudi-based carriers form an integrated ecosystem. Saudia and Riyadh Air target the mid- to full-service long-haul and premium travel segments, while flyadeal and flynas fill in the price-sensitive and high-frequency regional demand. In 2026, this synergy is expected to sharpen as joint schedules, shared loyalty benefits, and co-marketing efforts bring more cohesion to what has historically been a fragmented market.
Global Partnerships: Singapore Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Beyond
Saudi Arabia’s aviation push is not happening in isolation. A core pillar of the strategy is to weave the Kingdom’s carriers into a broader global alliance of partners that can funnel passengers into Riyadh and other Saudi gateways. Riyadh Air has already disclosed a growing roster of airline partners, including Saudia and several major international players. Notably, it has formed a partnership framework with Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s most respected full-service carriers.
Singapore Airlines is scheduled to resume non-stop flights between Singapore and Riyadh in June 2026, returning to the Saudi capital after a twelve-year gap. The service, planned at four times weekly, plugs a critical gap between Southeast Asia and Saudi Arabia and reflects increasing business, tourism, and religious travel between the two regions. For travelers, the new route cuts hours off itineraries that once required transfers in other Gulf hubs, and it opens convenient one-stop connections from Saudi Arabia to destinations across Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
On the transatlantic front, Delta Air Lines is preparing to launch a landmark non-stop service between Atlanta and Riyadh in October 2026. Operated with Airbus A350-900 aircraft several times a week, the route will create the first direct link by a major United States carrier between the US and Saudi Arabia. From a network perspective, the new Atlanta–Riyadh flight will connect the Saudi capital to more than 150 US destinations via Delta’s sprawling hub in Georgia, a powerful new bridge for business travelers, religious tourism, and the booming meetings and events sector in the Kingdom.
These moves by Singapore Airlines and Delta are more than incremental route additions. They are early signals of Saudi Arabia’s success in repositioning itself as a central node in global aviation. Codeshare and interline agreements deepen those ties further, allowing passengers to book combined itineraries that treat Riyadh and Jeddah as natural hubs rather than endpoints, and giving foreign airlines a way to tap into the Kingdom’s fast-growing inbound market without building vast local networks of their own.
Vision 2030 and the Race Toward 150 Million Visitors
Saudi Arabia’s aviation expansion cannot be separated from its Vision 2030 economic strategy, which aims to transform the Kingdom from an oil-dependent economy into a diversified powerhouse with tourism as a central pillar. Air connectivity is the oxygen that makes this transformation possible. The government’s Air Connectivity Program, launched in 2021, has already helped attract dozens of new international routes and more than a dozen new foreign carriers, with 2026 set to be one of its most consequential years.
Visitor numbers have been climbing steadily. The Kingdom is now looking beyond traditional religious pilgrimage peaks and focusing on year-round leisure, culture, and business travel. Mega-projects on the Red Sea coast, archaeological destinations like AlUla, and entertainment districts in Riyadh and Jeddah are being supported by tailored air services, many of which are being introduced or expanded under the umbrella of the Air Connectivity Program.
As airlines like Saudia, Riyadh Air, flyadeal, and flynas add capacity, the risk is always that supply could outpace demand. Saudi authorities and airline executives argue that the challenge is instead to keep up with latent demand as new visa regimes, digital platforms, and global marketing campaigns make it easier for first-time visitors to consider Saudi Arabia. The return of Singapore Airlines to Riyadh and the launch of Delta’s Atlanta service underscore that this confidence is shared internationally.
If the Kingdom can sustain this pace, 2026 may be remembered as the year when airlift finally reached a scale that matched the ambitions of its tourism planners. It will also be a critical test of whether airports, hotels, ground transportation, and visitor services can expand at the same speed as the aircraft orders and route announcements.
Riyadh’s Bid to Become a Global Hub
Historically, travelers between Europe, Asia, and Africa have transited primarily through established Gulf hubs such as Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi. With Riyadh Air’s rise and the broader expansion of Saudi aviation, the Kingdom is mounting a direct challenge to this status quo. The plan is not simply to add more point-to-point flights but to grow Riyadh into a transfer hub where passengers willingly choose to connect.
To that end, infrastructure at King Khalid International Airport is being upgraded to handle dramatically higher passenger volumes. Riyadh Air and Saudia are coordinating lounge development, terminal flows, and loyalty program integration to ensure that connecting in Riyadh is competitive in comfort and convenience. The launch of Riyadh Air’s Sfeer loyalty program, which is designed to interface with Saudia’s existing schemes, hints at a future in which a single Saudi-centered travel ecosystem spans multiple airlines and travel segments.
Scheduling will be critical. For Riyadh to succeed as a hub, banks of arrivals and departures must be carefully timed to allow smooth same-day connections between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The early morning arrival into London from Riyadh, for example, already aligns with onward departures across Europe, and similar logic is shaping new schedules in the Asia-Pacific region and, soon, North America.
If this hub vision pays off, Riyadh could emerge by the end of the decade as a serious alternative for global travelers seeking new routings and competitive fares. For visitors whose final destination is Saudi Arabia itself, the benefits are more immediate: shorter travel times, less backtracking through foreign hubs, and growing options to fly directly into the heart of the Kingdom’s new tourism regions.
Boom Travel and the New Saudi Leisure Map
The term “boom travel” captures the sharp rise in demand as restrictions ease, disposable incomes stabilize, and travelers seek fresh destinations beyond traditional European and Asian hotspots. Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as one of the main beneficiaries of this trend, and the aviation expansion planned for 2026 is the mechanism that will make it possible.
New and reinstated routes from carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Delta Air Lines will feed high-spending leisure travelers directly into Riyadh and Jeddah, where they can connect onwards to the Red Sea coast, desert glamping sites, and heritage-rich cities. Meanwhile, regional routes expanded by flyadeal, flynas, and partner airlines are expected to cater to a booming middle-class visitor base from the wider Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa, for whom Saudi Arabia is increasingly a short-break destination rather than a once-in-a-lifetime journey.
Riyadh Air’s own branding and product design emphasize the leisure segment as much as business travel. The airline has positioned itself as a lifestyle carrier as much as a flag carrier, aiming to make the journey part of the overall experience of visiting the Kingdom. Comfortable layovers, curated stopover programs, and co-branded tourism offers are all likely to feature more prominently in 2026 as the airline seeks to convert mere transit passengers into multi-night visitors.
For travelers planning their 2026 and 2027 trips, this convergence of new capacity, better connectivity, and aggressive tourism promotion will translate into more choice. It will also encourage experimentation, as frequent flyers who once routed reflexively through Dubai or Doha begin testing itineraries via Riyadh, Jeddah, or other Saudi gateways in search of new experiences and competitive fares.
What 2026 Means for International Travelers
By the time Riyadh Air opens public ticket sales, Singapore Airlines resumes non-stop Riyadh flights, and Delta’s Atlanta–Riyadh service takes off, the map of global air travel into Saudi Arabia will look very different from just a few years earlier. For many travelers, the most immediate impact will be practical: more options from their home cities, shorter total travel times, and a wider range of cabin products and price points.
Passengers based in the United States will, for the first time, have a direct connection on a major US carrier into Riyadh, opening new possibilities for business travel and high-end leisure trips. Travelers in Southeast Asia and Australasia will gain a fresh non-stop link to Riyadh through Singapore Airlines, with onward options into the rest of Saudi Arabia. Across Europe, additional capacity from Saudia, Riyadh Air, and partner carriers will support a rapid increase in city pairs serving Saudi destinations directly.
The year 2026 will also be a proving ground for Saudi Arabia’s broader proposition to visitors. As air access improves, expectations will rise in tandem for efficient e-visa processes, transparent pricing, and a seamless on-the-ground experience. Early adopters in 2024 and 2025 have already begun to share their impressions of the country’s changing tourism infrastructure. In 2026, the volume of such travelers will grow sharply, giving the Kingdom invaluable feedback as it fine-tunes everything from airport signage to hotel service standards.
For now, the trajectory is clear. With Riyadh Air poised for a full-scale debut, Saudia strengthening its flagship role, flyadeal and flynas weaving an ever-denser regional web, and heavyweight partners like Singapore Airlines and Delta Air Lines committing new capacity, Saudi Arabia’s skies are preparing for a historic takeoff. For global travelers planning their next wave of adventures, 2026 is shaping up to be the year when Saudi Arabia moves from emerging curiosity to mainstream long-haul destination.