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A new Saudi Arabian airline has pushed back its highly-anticipated launch after receiving fewer aircraft than expected from stricken plane maker Boeing.
Having originally planned to begin operations in the early part of this year, Riyadh Air is now targeting the third quarter after Boeing halved its number of expected deliveries.
Bosses are preparing to receive just four 787 Dreamliner wide-body aircraft in 2025, Bloomberg reported, having previously expected eight.
Tony Douglas, the chief executive of the start-up Saudi Arabian carrier, said: “We have obviously pivoted like everybody else has on a number of occasions to be able to adjust to the latest forecast.
“I am confident, given the latest forecast, that we’ll get deliveries this year. Is it completely without risk? Obviously no, it’s not.”
Riyadh Air has said it wants to offer flights to 100 global destinations by the end of the decade, supporting Saudi Arabia’s bid to attract 100m tourists a year.
String of Boeing setbacks
The delayed launch comes after Boeing has fallen far behind Airbus in its long-running battle to be the world’s biggest plane maker, having suffered from a string of setbacks and crises.
The US manufacturer delivered less than half the number of jets shipped by its European rival in 2024, the latest data show, with a similar story for new orders.
Riyadh Air revealed in October that it had lodged a mammoth $8bn (£6bn) aircraft order with Airbus, as it aims to take on established Middle Eastern carriers such as Emirates.
The airline, which is bankrolled by the Saudi state, struck a deal to buy 60 A321neo short-haul jets from Airbus.
This was in addition to an earlier agreement for 39 Boeing wide-bodies announced last year, which includes the option for another 33.
The carrier has already rented one Boeing 787 jet that became available from Oman Air, although it will not have the Riyadh Air interiors and is not primarily aimed at carrying passengers once commercial operations start. It will instead be used as a technical spare.
Boeing has faced a series of crises since a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max at 16,000ft in January last year.
A safety review led to the Max model being immediately taken out of service for safety checks, which revealed a litany of issues. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently caped build rates for the plane at 38 a month.
Scrutiny of production processes and the supply chain subsequently uncovered fundamental quality-control problems at Boeing, deepening the crisis and causing Max output to slow even further.