Startup Riyadh Air has bold plans for Middle East travel

Heathrow has seen some strange aircraft operations. In 2005, Qantas paid for a small regional jet to fly from the London airport to Manchester each morning, sit on the ground all day and return each evening. Ostensibly it carried a handful of passengers. The main aim: to protect precious slots, those permissions to take off and land at specific times.

- SIMON CALDER TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT

Two years later, British Mediterranean flew empty jets between Heathrow and Cardiff six times a week. Under the “use them or lose them” policy for slots, there is no penalty for such wasteful behaviour. Indeed, it is rewarded under the rules by allowing the airline to keep the slots.

Starting later this month, another unusual arrival is expected to turn up from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia each morning at 7.30am. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner carries the colours of Saudi startup Riyadh Air. But the plane is actually owned by Oman Air. It has been leased to Riyadh Air as a “technical spare” - and even has a name, Famila.

Riyadh Air, founded by the nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), has lofty ambitions. “We will be, for sure, a super-connector,” says Tony Douglas, the chief executive. His airline has 182 aircraft on order and plans, within five years, to be flying from the capital to 100 or more destinations.

“We aim to permanently transcend our guests’ perceptions and experiences of flying in the modern world,” Mr Douglas says. But he has been dealt a difficult hand. Delays in deliveries of the airline’s initial 787 aircraft meant that