Riyadh Air aims high with new premium economy

Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Air intends to shake up the skies with ‘Mercedes Maybach’ business suites when the state-owned startup begins flying in mid-2025.

But the luxe treatment won’t stop at the curtain behind that exclusive cabin: CEO Tony Douglas says budget-minded travellers can look forward to world-beating premium economy seats on its Boeing 787 fleet.

“I would like to think our premium economy is better than most other airlines’ business class,” Douglas tells Executive Traveller.

‘Most’ is a loaded word here: Douglas is talking about airlines with business class recliners, either long-outdated designs or regional business class seats, rather than the modern benchmark of fully lie-flat beds.

And “we’re not going to do a lie-flat premium economy,” he makes clear.

Premium economy tends to fall into being either “business class-minus or economy-plus”, Douglas says. “In other words, is it closer to other people’s business, or is it closer to other people’s economy?”

From that perspective, Riyadh Air’s premium economy recliners will be “a step up to business-minus as opposed to economy-plus.”

Riyadh Air’s 787 suites and seats, along with the rest of the inflight experience, will be revealed in early 2025, ahead of tickets going on sale for the airline’s first destinations in the Europe and the Gulf region.

“We’ll be flying from Riyadh to let’s say ‘European capital A’ and back,” Douglas maps out.

“Then the airplane will turn around and do a shorter leg on thick routes within the region – to Jeddah, for example.”

“It will then come back to Riyadh, turn around and then do ‘European city B’, and so on.”

Riyadh Air’s premium economy seat will go up against a fresh wave of other ‘better than economy’ recliners from the likes of Cathay Pacific and Air New Zealand, while Qantas’ third-gen premium economy will debut in 2026 on non-stop flights to London and New York.

Also read: Where will Riyadh Air fly, and will it be dry?