Riyadh Air has opened ticket sales for three new Asian routes, connecting the Saudi capital with Islamabad, Lahore and Manila and extending the young carrier’s reach across South and Southeast Asia.
Inaugural flights depart for Islamabad on August 14, Lahore on August 18 and Manila on September 9. All three routes will be flown with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in the airline’s four-cabin configuration of Business Elite, Business, Premium Economy and Economy.
Moreover, the Pakistan services target business, leisure, work and family travellers, including the large Pakistani expatriate community in Saudi Arabia, with onward connections offered to the wider Middle East and Europe through the Riyadh hub. Riyadh to Islamabad runs four times a week on flight RX0659, departing at 1345, with a second rotation, RX0661, departing at 2010 three times a week. Lahore is served on RX0675.
The daily Manila service, flight RX0873, departs Riyadh at 0105 and arrives at Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 1555 local time, returning as RX0874 at 1725. The airline frames the route as a response to demand from the established Filipino community in Saudi Arabia alongside business and leisure traffic between the two countries.
So, the launches build on Riyadh Air’s recent entries into Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai, and support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambition to position Riyadh as a competitive long-haul hub. The carrier, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, flew its first commercial service in October 2025 and is expanding its network at pace.
For the trade
For agents and tour operators, the additions harden Riyadh’s credentials as a connecting point rather than solely an origin-and-destination market but it offers a big boost for the airline which only recently launched.
The Pakistan routes sit on some of the busiest labour-and-family corridors into the Gulf, where fare competition with Saudia, PIA and low-cost carriers will be sharp, yet again the PR department dropped the ball and forgot to post on their own website. This will likely be their busiest route considering the number of people from Pakistan working in the Kingdom.
The daily Manila service is the more strategically interesting move as it opens a premium-cabin option on a route long dominated by Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines and Saudia, and gives Riyadh Air a Southeast Asian anchor to feed onward European traffic through its hub. Trade partners should watch how aggressively the carrier prices Business and Premium Economy to build corporate and diaspora loyalty on these thin-yield but high-volume corridors.
