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Business Leader of the Week: Tony Douglas-led Riyadh Air wants to create aviation industry’s ‘Steve Jobs Moment’

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In the words of Tony Douglas, the entire trip can be booked from one place, meaning hotels, cars and experiences

Saudi Arabia’s new aviation player Riyadh Air is in the news once again, as after buying dozens of Airbus and Boeing planes, it now aims to finalise a new deal involving the industry’s largest twin-aisle jets in early 2025. It is reportedly weighing up the Boeing 777X and the Airbus A350-1000 to execute the order.

In 2023, Riyadh Air ordered 39 Boeing 787 wide-body jets with options for another 33 as part of a wider deal also involving national carrier Saudia, and in October 2024, it placed a significant order for 60 Airbus A321neo-family aircraft.

CEO Tony Douglas, who has been charting the new airline’s global footprint-related plans, reiterated that the airline, which plans to start operations in 2025, ultimately aimed to operate more than 200 aircraft. The formal talks with Boeing and Airbus for the wide-body aircraft order would start within two months. He further informed Reuters that the A321neos would be delivered between the second half of 2026 and the end of 2030, while hinting at further purchases.

The CEO said the A321neo would be used to open new routes or to fly in sectors where there is not enough demand to fill the 290-seat Boeing 787-9, adding that flying such big jets less than three-quarters full would not make sense economically.

“Riyadh Air has not decided which version of A321neo to take but is likely to include some long-distance models,” he added.

Riyadh Air Eyes Its ‘Steve Jobs Moment’

In November 2024, Riyadh Air announced its partnership with Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC) to install the company’s Astrova IFE system across its entire Boeing 787-9 fleet. The system we are talking about here features sharp 4K OLED HDR 10+ screens which offer “cinema quality visuals” and high-fidelity audio. Passengers can connect to the system with their own wireless headphones via PAC’s Bluetooth technology.

Through the above-mentioned solution, passengers will be able to browse in-flight entertainment options ahead of flying via the “Riyadh Air App” before launching their chosen content when they board the plane. The system will also save passengers’ timestamp on films and TV shows, so that they can resume watching from where they have left off on subsequent flights.

To align with Saudi Arabia’s mandate for mobile phones to have USB-C charging ports by January 2025, the new IFE solution has also been made equipped with USB-C charging ports with up to 100W of DC power. Mobile devices can be paired with the onboard Astrova screens too.

In October 2024, Douglas called Riyadh Air’s new “Digital Strategy” as his “Steve Jobs Moment.” The roadmap envisions making the new airline “more in common with Amazon, noon.com [a Middle Eastern online retailer] and Uber” than its industry peers.

The “Riyadh Air App” will include a “shopping basket” to add flight tickets, attraction tickets, rental cars, and other travel-related bookings. The airline has partnered with FLYR for its “digital-native” suite of features.

Users will be able to create group bookings through the app, allowing the flyers to add their own experiences collectively to one booking, similar to Airbnb’s shared link system. Groups will be able to add their bookings even if they are not from Riyadh Air, as the carrier has a growing list of partners including Delta Air Lines and Singapore Airlines.

In the words of Tony Douglas, the entire trip can be booked “from one place,” meaning hotels, cars and experiences.

The CEO noted that Riyadh Air’s digital-first approach will take on the established online travel agencies.

“Look at Booking.com, it’s got a market capitalisation of USD 150 billion. Expedia and Trip are right up there. The biggest airline in the world has a market capitalisation of USD 32 billion. We [airlines] do all the hard work, we’ve got the balance sheet with aircraft that depreciate, so he or she who controls digital, controls where the value is,” he remarked at the Future Investment Initiative conference (FII) in Riyadh.

“The travel integrator with the airline, not one or the other, is what Riyadh Air is trying to become. Here lies the Steve Jobs moment. It’s a pathway to the future,” he added further.

Analysts feel that Riyadh Air is going for a “Super App” kind of model, something which Malaysia’s AirAsia has, in the form of “Move.”

Move allows users to book with other airlines through the app, and facilitates hotel booking as well.

Meet Tony Douglas, The Visionary

The British businessman is an aviation industry veteran. From 2013 onwards, he has become a known name in the Gulf region, as he first served as the chief executive of Abu Dhabi Airports Company, and then handled the leadership reigns of Etihad Airways from 2018 to 2022.

In his home country United Kingdom, Tony Douglas has held senior positions with airport operator BAA (Spanish-owned business which handles operations of five British airports including Heathrow) and was Chief Operating Officer of Dartford-based multinational construction company Laing O’Rourke.

Tony Douglas started his career by joining British Aerospace in their regional jet production facilities, became manufacturing and logistics director at consumer electronics company Kenwood and then entered BAA as its Group Supply Chain Director. After these, he served Heathrow Airport by first becoming its Group Technical Director, followed by his promotion as the Managing Director of the airport’s Terminal 5 and finally Chief Executive of the aviation facility.

In 2007, Tony Douglas became the Chief Operating Officer at Laing O’Rourke. After that, he joined the Abu Dhabi Ports Company as its Chief Executive. He led the venture’s projects at Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone in 2010. Three years later, it was the turn of the Abu Dhabi Airports Company to have Tony Douglas as its Chief Executive. Etihad Airways, in October 2017, appointed him as its Group Chief Executive Officer. He played a significant role in the flagship Gulf carrier, helping the latter to trim the losses by reducing total costs by USD 416 million to USD 6.9 billion.

In 2022, reports suggested that Tony Douglas had accepted an offer to join the board of Riyadh Air. It only got confirmed in March 2023, as he took over his new role.

Kingdom Bets Big On The Airline

The carrier, which has yet to start taking in revenue (with its first flights due in 2025), is leaving no stone unturned on the strategy front. While tourism leaders at the FII event talked about Riyadh Air being a key piece of the puzzle in connecting Saudi to the world, Tony Douglas wants his venture to be a “digitally-led business that enables travel, not to be confused with a conventional airline.”

Upon its launch in 2025, Riyadh Air’s first immediate task will be to address a critical gap in Saudi Arabia’s aviation network: the lack of direct flights between Riyadh and international capitals, while aligning with the Kingdom’s “Vision 2030” economic diversification agenda, which places a special emphasis on its domestic tourism industry. While Saudi Arabia’s national carrier Saudia serves regional destinations from Jeddah, Riyadh Air will provide direct links between the capital and major international cities.

In the words of Abdullah Alhagbani, the Saudi Tourism Authority’s chief partnership and executive affairs officer, “Saudi Arabia has raised its tourism target to 150 million visitors by 2030, after beating its 100-million goal last year, seven years ahead of schedule.”

“A primary goal for the airline is to strengthen links between Saudi Arabia and Asia, a region with rapidly growing national economies and rising travel demand. It will introduce direct flights to major cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore, and it also plans to connect with London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The airline aims to establish Riyadh as a central hub for both business and tourism. This expansion will be crucial to attracting international tourists in line with Vision 2030’s long-term plan of welcoming 150 million visitors annually. The carrier expects to announce its first routes in early 2025,” Travelradar reported.

The airline is currently in talks to work with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways to expand each other’s route network, with Chief Financial Officer Adam Boukadida stating that the cooperation may “very possibly” include a code-sharing accord for the two carriers to fly passengers on each other’s aircraft to a wider network of destinations.

The potential code-share with one of Asia’s biggest carriers, along with the ongoing aircraft orders, will be the key steps facilitating Riyadh Air to reach “100 different destinations, at the minimum, by 2030,” Boukadida added.

The agreement, if materialised, will help Riyadh Air tap into Cathay Pacific’s network of over 80 global destinations to expand the Saudi carrier’s routes quickly, while giving Cathay Pacific access to more connections in the Middle East.

Since its formation in 2023, Riyadh Air has already made several cooperation agreements with several carriers including China Eastern Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Egyptair, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific’s 30% shareholder Air China. Three of its six accords are with Asia-based airlines, showing the kind of focus the Kingdom’s new airline has put for the region.

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