The story
Early years
When U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented a Douglas DC-3 as a gift to King Abdulaziz in 1945, the event marked the kingdom's gradual development of civil aviation. The nation's flag carrier, Saudia, was founded as Saudi Arabian Airlines in September 1945 as a fully owned government agency under the control of the Ministry of Defense, with Trans World Airlines (TWA) running the airline under a management contract.
The now-demolished Jeddah Airport, close to Jeddah, was the flag carrier's main base. Among the airline's early operations was a special flight from Lydda (Lod) in Palestine (today in Israel, site of Ben Gurion Airport), a British Mandate at that time, to carry Hajj pilgrims to Jeddah. The airline used five DC-3 aircraft to launch scheduled operations on the Jeddah-Riyadh-Hofuf-Dhahran route in March 1947. Its first international service was between Jeddah and Cairo. Service to Beirut, Karachi and Damascus followed in early 1948. The first of five Bristol 170s was received the following year. These aircraft offered the airline the flexibility of carrying both passengers and cargo. In 1959, Saudia opened its first aviation school, the Pilot Training Institute based in Jeddah Airport. It had 14 founding students out of the 20 nominees, with Baha Aldeen Asad appointed as the principal and Captain Norman B. Doerr as American supervisor.
In 1962, the airline took delivery of two Boeing 720s, becoming the fourth Middle Eastern airline to fly jet aircraft after Middle East Airlines and Cyprus Airways with the de Havilland Comet in 1960 and El Al with the Boeing 707 in 1961. On 19 February 1963, the airline became a registered company, with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia signing the papers that declared Saudia a fully independent company. DC-6s and Boeing 707s were later bought, and the airline joined the AACO, the Arab Air Carriers' Organization. Services were started to Frankfurt, Geneva, Khartoum, London, Mumbai, Rabat, Sharjah, Tehran, Tripoli, and Tunis.
In the 1970s, a new livery was introduced. It comprised a white fuselage with green and blue stripes and a green tailfin. The carrier's name was changed to Saudia on 1 April 1972. Boeing 737s and Fokker F-28s were bought, with the 737s replacing the Douglas DC-9. The airline operated its first Boeing 747 service in 1977 when three jumbo jets were leased from Middle East Airlines and deployed in the London sector. The first all-cargo flights between Saudi Arabia and Europe were started, and Lockheed L-1011s and Fairchild FH-27s were introduced. New services, including the Arabian Express 'no reservation shuttle flights' between Jeddah and Riyadh. The Special Flight Services (SFS) was set up as a special unit of Saudia and operates special flights for the royal family and government agencies. Service was also started to Kano, Muscat, Paris, Rome, and Stockholm. The Pan Am/Saudia joint service between Dhahran and New York City began in 1979.
In the 1980s, services such as Saudia Catering began. Flights were started to Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Bangkok, Brussels, Colombo, Dakar, Delhi, Dhaka, Islamabad, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Madrid, Manila, Mogadishu, Nairobi, New York City, Nice, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei. Horizon Class, a business class service, was established to offer enhanced service. Cargo hubs were built in Brussels and Taipei. Airbus A300s, Boeing 747s, and Cessna Citations were also added to the fleet, the Citations for the SFS service. On 1 July 1982, the first nonstop service from Jeddah to New York City was initiated with Boeing 747SP aircraft. This was followed by a Riyadh-New York route. In 1989, services to Larnaca and Addis Ababa began.
In the 1990s, services to Orlando, Chennai, Asmara, Washington, D.C., Johannesburg, Alexandria, Milan, Málaga (seasonal), and Sana'a (resumption) were introduced. Boeing 777s, MD-90s, and MD-11s were introduced. New female flight attendant uniforms designed by Adnan Akbar were introduced. A new corporate identity was launched on 16 July 1996, featuring a sand colored fuselage with contrasting dark blue tailfin, the center of which featured a stylized representation of the House of Saud crest. The Saudia name was dropped in the identity revamp, with the full Saudi Arabian Airlines name used.
Development (2000s–2020s)
On 8 October 2000, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Minister of Defense and Aviation, signed a contract to conduct studies for the privatization of Saudi Arabian Airlines. In preparation for this, the airline was restructured to allow non-core units—including Saudia catering, ground handling services and maintenance as well as the Prince Sultan Aviation Academy in Jeddah—to be transformed into commercial units and profit centers. In April 2005, the Saudi government indicated that the airline may also lose its monopoly on domestic services.
In 2006, Saudia began the process of dividing itself into Strategic business units (SBU); the catering unit was the first to be privatized. In August 2007, Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers approved the conversion of strategic units into companies. It is planned that ground services, technical services, air cargo and the Prince Sultan Aviation Academy, medical division, as well as the catering unit, will become subsidiaries of a holding company.
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The airline rebranded to its former brand name Saudia (used from 1972 to 1996) on 29 May 2012, dropping the Saudi Arabian Airlines branding entirely; the name was changed to celebrate the company's entry into the SkyTeam airline alliance on that day, and it was part of a larger rebranding initiative.
Saudia received 64 new aircraft by the end of 2012 (six from Boeing and 58 from Airbus). Another eight Boeing 787-9 aircraft started to join the fleet in 2015.
In April 2016, Saudia announced the creation of a low-cost subsidiary named Flyadeal. The airline was launched as part of Saudia Group's SV 2020 Transformation Strategy, which intends to transform the group's units into world-class organisations by 2020. Flyadeal, which serves domestic and regional destinations, began operating in mid 2017.
Continued growth and new brand identity (2020s–present)
In April 2021, Saudia announced that on 19 April, it will try the mobile app developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that helps passengers manage their travel information and documents digitally.
In December 2021, Saudia was in talks with the two major aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing in purchasing new wide-body aircraft, the airline will decide in early 2022 whether it will order the Airbus A350 or the Boeing 777X, or it might purchase more Boeing 787s instead. The airline also chose the CFM International LEAP engine to power its Airbus A321neos which are expected to be delivered in 2024. The airline plans to have 250 planes in its fleet by 2030.
In April 2022, services began to Seoul, Beijing, Batumi, Mykonos, Barcelona, Málaga, Bangkok, Chicago, Moscow, Entebbe and Kyiv. Services to Kyiv are currently not operating due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In June 2022, they resumed services to Zurich. In July 2022, Saudia signed a contract with the Air Connectivity Programme to launch four new destinations to Zurich, Barcelona, Tunis and Kuala Lumpur.
In March 2023, Saudia ordered 39 Boeing 787s split between the -9 and -10 variants, with options for a further ten aircraft.
In September 2023, Saudia announced a brand and livery rebrand back to the 1970s design and logo. It also introduced a new travel AI assistant called "SAUDIA", using OpenAI's GPT-4.
In January 2025, Saudia announced that the airline will be relocating its London to Neom route from Heathrow to Gatwick. The Heathrow route utilized larger Boeing 787-9 aircraft whereas Gatwick enables the airline to introduce smaller Airbus A320 aircraft, thus aligning capacity with demand and optimizing the airline's operational efficiency.
In early October 2026, due to renewed fighting between Saudia Arabia and Houthis, Riyadh airport was struck by ballistic missiles and shrapnel launched by the Houthis. Saudia had to cancel 100s of flights in the ensuing days. On October 8, shrapnel struck an A320-200 of Saudia, causing it to catch on fire. The aircraft was written off.
From Wikipedia’s article on Saudia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4