Riyadh Air: new Saudi airline seeks to benefit from travel boom

Riyadh Air: new Saudi airline seeks to benefit from travel boom

As the deafening roar of an F35 fighter jet washes over the Paris air show, Tony Douglas allows himself a moment of nostalgia: he was formerly responsible for the UK government agency charged with buying the planes.

Now he is in charge of a different aviation proposition, leading the launch of a new commercial airline belonging to the Saudi Arabian state.

Riyadh Air, owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund, was first revealed in March alongside a provisional order for up to 72 Boeing 787 aeroplanes.