Why this inclusive airline is now flying to Saudi Arabia

Times

23-04-2025

Richard Branson flew into Riyadh with his trademark Virgin Atlantic cabin crew dressed in red today. His party-on, LGBT friendly, carrier has launched daily flights to and from the Saudi capital — a dry town where homosexuality is illegal. The bar aboard Virgin's Airbus A330 closed as it entered Saudi airspace and Virgin warned guests: 'Please note, in Saudi Arabia it is illegal to show same-sex affection in public.'
Branson did not get the memo.'There are plenty of gay people in Saudi Arabia,' he said shortly before landing at King Khalid airport and walking into the dusty desert air. 'I've got a lot of gay Saudi friends who do not feel uncomfortable living in Saudi.' However, he conceded: 'They don't have a Heaven nightclub in Saudi.'
Heaven or no Heaven, Virgin Atlantic's founder is all-in on Saudi Arabia. Not only has he launched daily flights from Heathrow, but he has signed a code-share agreement with Saudia, the national flag carrier, meaning that Virgin passengers can easily transfer to flights from Riyadh to Jeddah, AlUla and the Red Sea airport for new coastal resorts. Travellers can also earn and spend Virgin Flying Club points with Saudia.
Virgin is negotiating the same arrangement with Riyadh Air, which will be launched this year as Saudi Arabia's answer to Dubai's Emirates — a super-connector airline. It will be based at a new six-runway, seven-terminal hub at King Khalid airport that is expected to be completed by 2030. Riyadh Air is owned by the Saudi government's sovereign wealth fund.
Branson's new flights are surprising because Saudi Arabia is an odd destination for the carrier, whose razzle-dazzle service is better suited to destinations such as Las Vegas, where Branson celebrated the airline's 40th anniversary last year. The billionaire publicly pulled out of investment talks in Saudi Arabia after the 2018 murder of the Saudi-born US journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. So why has he changed his mind?
'I made a point, even after that incredibly unpleasant incident, of keeping in touch,' he said. 'I think the Saudis have changed dramatically in the last six or seven years. It's by no means perfect, but it's definitely moved dramatically in the right direction. Saudi Arabia will go closer to Dubai over the next 20 years.'
Saudi women can now work freely, travel without a male guardian and drive, while the arts, previously banned, are beginning to flourish.
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As well as the new flights, Branson is in talks to start Virgin Voyages cruises in the Red Sea and to open a hotel in Riyadh. It is unclear whether its snug bar would be named the Shag Room, as at other Virgin hotels. Note that all new hotels here are built with bars in anticipation of a loosening of restrictions on serving alcohol.
Who is going to fill the daily flights? Religious travellers? Western tourists? Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said that 80 per cent of customers on the new route are Saudis travelling between Riyadh and London or catching connecting flights to the US. American carriers do not fly directly to Saudi Arabia.
Branson hopes that more Brits will take advantage of the partnership with Riyadh Air when it launches flights to Asia, Africa and Australia. Virgin Atlantic no longer flies to China or Australia; its easternmost destination will soon be South Korea, a route that Branson announced on Wednesday morning, with flights to Seoul scheduled to begin in March next year.
Riyadh Air's chief executive is Tony Douglas, a Briton who built Heathrow Terminal 5, oversaw construction of Abu Dhabi's new airport and ran the Gulf city state's airline, Etihad. And the new carrier is snazzy — at his office near King Khalid airport Douglas showed me the seats — in dark purple with gold accents — that are being installed on its new lavender-coloured Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets taking to the skies before the end of this year.
Douglas has spent an estimated £28 billion buying 72 wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliners and will order dozens more long-haul jets — either Airbus A350-1000s or Boeing 777-9s — this summer, enabling him to serve 100 destinations by 2030. 'We're the biggest start-up since Emirates,' he said.
True, but why would anyone opt for Virgin and Riyadh Air over Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad and Turkish Airlines, all of which offer spiffy services to every key destination east and south of the UK via their hubs in, respectively, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul — especially when you can drink alcohol freely on board and in the airports if you wish? As a Saudi company, Riyadh Air cannot serve alcohol anywhere in the world, on the ground or in the air.
The answer, Douglas said, is that Riyadh Air 'is the Virgin Atlantic of the Gulf'. He pointed out that, like Virgin, Riyadh Air is 'proud to stand out in the crowd, with fresh, distinctively designed aircraft livery, cabins, uniforms, branding and service'.
Business analysts expect the rules on serving alcohol to be changed in the next few years to allow Riyadh Air to serve booze outside Saudi airspace.
Other airlines are joining Branson in a race to Riyadh because Saudi Arabia is now the fastest-growing new business and tourism destination. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, is lavishing more than £75 billion on tourism and sport — a tenth of the total budget for his Vision 2030 programme, designed to diversify the economy away from oil.
British Airways (BA), which has flown from London to Riyadh on and off for decades, operates at least one direct flight a day to the Saudi capital and in November launched daily Heathrow-Jeddah flights. The Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air last month started a direct Gatwick-Jeddah service; Saudia is adding an extra daily Heathrow-Riyadh flight, bringing its total to four, and also adding Gatwick-Jeddah flights.
These carriers generally cater to different customer categories: BA mostly businesspeople and Saudi high-rollers; Wizz to religious travellers en route to Mecca and lower-budget tourists; Saudia mainly Saudi nationals of all income brackets.
Saudi Arabia exceeded its target of attracting 100 million tourists a year in 2013 and has raised its target for 2030 to 150 million a year. Multi-entry Saudi tourist visas take a few minutes to obtain for travellers from most nations and, while the museums of Riyadh can be a little dull, the Red Sea resorts and AlUla desert cultural centre are among the best new attractions in the Gulf.
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Fahd Hamidaddin, chief executive of the Saudi Tourism Authority, insisted that 'everyone is now welcome' in the kingdom, but conceded that some travellers may have doubts about visiting. 'Come and see for yourself,' he said.
Thanks to Branson and his peers, this has never been easier — or better value. Limited service used to mean that return fares to the kingdom were some of the highest in the region, but a Heathrow-Riyadh return in economy class with BA is now about £800, while Jeddah flights are about £600. Catch the Wizz service from Gatwick to Jeddah and the fare can be as little as £200.John Arlidge was a guest of Virgin Atlantic, which has Heathrow-Riyadh returns from £447 (virginatlantic.com)