Riyadh Air

Is Riyadh Air safe?

So far, yes, but the record is too short to say much. Riyadh Air has flown passengers since October 2025 without an accident, its fleet is brand-new Boeing 787-9s, and Saudi Arabia's regulator holds FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary. We score it 82 with low confidence. A year of flying with fewer than ten aircraft cannot show how an airline handles safety over time, and in October 2026 its only hub, Riyadh, was hit by Houthi strikes and closed for more than a week.

How long has Riyadh Air been flying?

Not long. GACA, Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority, issued Riyadh Air's air operator certificate in April 2025. According to the airline, the process took 11 months, with ten GACA inspectors and more than 200 hours of test flights.

The first passenger flight, RX401 from Riyadh to London Heathrow, left on 26 October 2025. It used HZ-RXX, a 787-9 leased from Oman Air that the airline had used for training. The first passengers were staff and invited guests, and the daily London flight stayed on this one aircraft for months. Boeing delivered Riyadh Air's own first two 787-9s on 5 June 2026, and the first scheduled flight with one of them reached Heathrow on 10 June. By August the airline had seven 787-9s and was adding routes to Islamabad, Lahore, Bangkok and Manila.

You may read that Riyadh Air "launched" in June 2026. That was the start of scheduled flying with its own aircraft, not of the airline. Counted either way, the record is short.

Why we do not give a top accident score

The Aviation Safety Network database has no Riyadh Air entry, and we found no accident in news reports. On our rubric, the top band needs a clean record over many years and many flights. Riyadh Air has about a year, mostly with one aircraft and then with up to eight. That is a few thousand flights at most, far fewer than an airline needs before a clean record means much.

We score the accident record 88, the same as other young airlines with clean records, such as Akasa Air and Breeze. A lower number would put a clean record below airlines that have had accidents, which is not what the evidence shows. The shortness of the record goes into the low confidence label instead: this score can move more than most as Riyadh Air builds hours.

Incidents and oversight

We found no serious incident, fine or grounding since launch. Here, too, the absence of events tells us little. Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Center publishes few reports, and a small fleet has had little time for incidents to occur. We score incidents 75, below flyadeal (78), which has nine years without a known serious incident.

Oversight scores 84, the same as Saudia, flynas and flyadeal. Saudi Arabia holds FAA IASAFAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary Category 1, no Saudi airline is on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary, and Riyadh Air is an IATA member, so it has passed the IATA Operational Safety AuditIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary (IOSA).

The fleet

This is the strongest factor. Riyadh Air flies only the Boeing 787-9, and almost every aircraft was delivered after June 2026. Its order covers up to 72 787s. A new fleet of one current type is about as good as it gets, so we score it 94. The leased Oman Air 787-9 is older, but it is a spare.

Riyadh is the only hub, and it was attacked

Every Riyadh Air flight starts or ends at King Khalid International Airport, and this is where the conflict hit hardest. On 8 October 2026 two attacks hit airport buildings and a Saudia aircraft on the ground and killed three people, among them a Saudia captain, according to GACA. On 10 October a further strike killed at least 12 people and injured 309, and the airport shut; one of the injured died later, which raised the toll to 13. On 11 October a missile hit Terminal 4, the passenger terminal, and started a fire, killing one person and injuring 11. The same evening GACA confirmed an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, and a second attack there on 21 October killed one resident. Riyadh reopened on 18 October under a GACA notice that requires prior permission for every arrival and departure, and on 21 October the AP saw only limited traffic, flown by Saudia and flynas.

EASA's bulletin for Saudi airspace, revised on 9 October, tells European airlines not to fly at any height over part of the Jeddah flight region. It also warns that attacks now focus on aviation infrastructure, which raises the risk to aircraft on the ground and during take-off and landing. No Riyadh Air aircraft was attacked in flight, so none of this counts in its accident record. We score the environment 45, the same as the other Saudi airlines. An airline with one hub has no other base to fall back on when that hub closes, and this is the risk most likely to affect your trip. See our Saudi Arabia travel page for current advice.

Flying Riyadh Air: what to check

• Check your flight status on the day, and again before you leave for the airport. A closure at Riyadh stops the whole network.
• Book flexible fares or keep a back-up plan while the EASA bulletin is in force (until at least 16 November 2026). Several foreign airlines have cancelled Riyadh flights until mid-November, so other seats out of Riyadh may be scarce.
• Look again in a year. With low confidence, this score will change more than most as Riyadh Air builds a real record.

How we scored it

A new 787-9 fleet (94) and Saudi oversight with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary (84) help. The accident record scores 88, the usual value for a clean but short record, and incidents 75 because about a year without known events in a thinly reported system proves little. The October 2026 attacks on Riyadh pull the environment down to 45. Overall 82, with low confidence.