The Lancastrian boss of a new Saudi Arabian airline is planning to serve 100 cities with a fleet of 200 jets as part of the Kingdom’s bid to become a global tourist hub.
However, rather than muscling in on the Middle East’s dominant airlines, Tony Douglas is vying to build a “world-class national carrier” by regaining Saudi travellers who have been neglected for too long.
Mr Douglas, 61, says limited international flights from Saudi airports have left locals reliant on hubs in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for links with the rest of the world.
That is despite the IMF forecasting that the Saudi economy will be the second-fastest growing in the world this year.
Mr Douglas is the person largely responsible for overhauling the country’s connectivity, as he oversees plans for the launch of Riyadh Air.
His start-up carrier is scheduled to commence services next summer, spearheading a push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the Saudi economy.
Establishing a new carrier from scratch is a tall order at the best of times, with the vast majority of airline start-ups failing within a few years.
Yet the challenge facing Mr Douglas is even tougher, with Riyadh Air poised to compete against the might of Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad.
Dubai-based Emirates ranks as the world’s biggest carrier on international routes and all three are industry heavyweights with globe-spanning networks across five continents.
However, Mr Douglas, who was born 13 miles from Liverpool in Ormskirk, and jumped ship from Etihad to take the Saudi job, told the Telegraph his mission is not to take on the Gulf giants at their own game by competing for global passenger flows.
Instead, Riyadh Air will seek to recapture traffic that Saudi Arabia regards as rightfully its own, and at the same time provide the enhanced global links demanded by Vision 2030, which aims to lift Saudi’s tourist numbers to 100 million a year.
He said: “It’s no secret that for a long time, Saudi Arabia has lagged way behind in terms of global connectivity, and there’s no good example anywhere in the world of a sustainable, fast-growing economy that hasn’t got good connectivity.
“The Kingdom needs a new world-class national carrier that will be its own version of Emirates and Qatar Airways, and the answer to that is Riyadh Air.”
Mr Douglas, who spoke at the International Air Transport Association’s annual summit in Dubai, said Qatar Air’s base in Doha – a 45-minute flight from Riyadh – counts Saudi nationals as its single biggest market for business and first-class bookings.
More than 80pc of people who use the airport fly on to another destination, the boss said.
He said: “The cliche is that for the last 40 years, the national carrier of India has been Emirates. The parallel to that is that the national carrier of Saudi Arabia has been Qatar Airways, at least for premium traffic.”
It’s a similar story for foreign nationals drawn to Saudi Arabia by the opportunities created by the economy’s $1 trillion diversification plan, only they tend to use Emirates and Dubai to get there.
Mr Douglas said: “A world of talent is flooding into Riyadh given what’s going on with the economy, the giga-projects and the other economic diversification themes. Consultants, bankers, financiers, architects.
“But they’re flying to Dubai to get to Riyadh because there aren’t enough direct flights.” Such is the level of demand that the route has become the sixth-busiest worldwide, he said.
That an oil-rich state with the largest economy in the Arab World and 36 million people should be so reliant on smaller neighbours with a third of the population combined is no longer acceptable given Saudi’s growth plans, Mr Douglas said.
He said: “It’s completely wrong. So that’s our mandate – to change that. We are super-excited about it.”
Not that Riyadh Air intends to wade into the fray alone. Behind the scenes the company has been busy recruiting a network of partners which will allow it to sell tickets around the world under its flight code, but who will carry passengers in its own planes for part of the journey.
Riyadh Air last year signed a partnership deal with Turkish Airways, which has the biggest network of any carrier, serving more than 300 destinations in 120 countries.
It has also struck an agreement with sister operator Saudia, based in Jeddah – from where it serves the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mr Douglas greatly expanded his airline’s support network last week with the announcement of tie-ups with Singapore Airlines, Air China and China Eastern, three of Asia’s biggest carriers, as well as Egyptair.
He said: “At the moment everybody is very, very interested in Saudi Arabia, which has given us a unique position in discussions with the big international A-listers.”
Singapore Air will provide forward links to eight destinations in Australia and three in New Zealand, as well as locations across Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines will funnel passengers into central Europe.
Riyadh Air is now targeting a partner in the US, as well as Western Europe and India, as it looks to complete its ring of alliances.
The airline has yet to reveal its own route network but it will serve all the main bases of its partners and, within the first three years, begin flying to every major city in western Europe, northeastern US, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East, as well as the Gulf, he said.
To fulfil this ambition, Riyadh Air has ordered 72 Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes seating 290 people, with the airline also soon expected to announce a raft of new narrow-body jets.
The airline will begin racking up test flying hours later this year in order to qualify for its operating certificate by the end of 2024.
In preparation for next year’s launch, Riyadh Air is also seeking to establish its brand on the global stage.
The company recently announced that local Saudi couturier Ashi, who has dressed Beyonce and Penelope Cruz, would create a cabin crew fashion line to be revealed in Paris later this month. The look will be “a standout, elegant, refined fashion statement”, said Mr Douglas.
The airline has commissioned two different liveries for its planes, which he said “look like a billionaire’s Gulfstream G650 business jet”, rather than commercial aircraft.
Riyadh Air’s interiors will be just as striking, he claimed, with the overall effect harking back to what he called the “halcyon days” of Pan Am flights in the 1960s.
The carrier aims to be operating at a global level in its own right within three years, ready to cater to a series of global events expected to take place in Saudi Arabia, including the 2029 Winter Olympics, Expo 2030 Riyadh, and the 2034 World Cup.
Mr Douglas said the aim is clear: “This is about Saudi Arabian connectivity first and foremost. It’s not about a transfer model any time soon, because there’s so much demand just for flights to Riyadh.
“The place at the moment is at hyper-speed.”
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