India is firmly in the sights of a rapidly expanding Saudi low-cost airline. Flyadeal has ambitious plans to more than double the size of its fleet during the next four years. This will see it transform from a largely domestic airline to one with much greater international connectivity.
Speaking at the Skift Global Forum East in Dubai, flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway confirmed that India is likely to play a key role in the carrier’s cross-border expansion.
“The [Saudi] market is very immature at the moment – that isn’t a criticism, it’s just a fact. We aren’t Western Europe, we’re not North America – there’s a lot of catching up to do,” said the chief executive.
Flyadeal is currently growing at around 10-15% per year – a trajectory that is due to continue until the end of the decade.
When Greenway joined the airline in January, around 80% of flyadeal’s network capacity was domestic. That figure is due to shift closer to 50-50 over the coming years. The airline will continue to grow domestically – likely rising from 19 to 25 Saudi destinations – but “the bulk of the growth” will be international.
Asked if China and India formed part of the expansion plan, the CEO suggested India would play a bigger role. “Less so China, more so India because you have more of a prevalence of worker and religious traffic. The [Indian] subcontinent is certainly something that is on our radar for the next 12 months, particularly India for the sheer market size,” said Greenway.
If realized, flyadeal will follow in the footsteps of rival Saudi budget airline flynas. The privately owned company already serves many of India’s largest cities, including Delhi and Mumbai.
Is a Widebody Order Coming?
To accommodate the expansion, the flyadeal chief suggested that a widebody plane order may be in the cards.
“We want to go further. There is a massive mandate from the [Saudi] government in terms of bringing pilgrims, worker traffic, and high-volume and low-yield traffic, into the Kingdom. We want to stretch our wings. The real strategy behind it is that we have to go for widebodies to cater to that market.”
Flyadeal’s current fleet is composed of Airbus A320 jets that can carry up to 186 passengers. Larger A321 planes that have 240 seats are due for delivery from 2026. All of the A321s will be based in Riyadh where airport slot restrictions limit how many new flights the airline can add.
The introduction of widebody aircraft could see flyadeal carry more than 400 passengers on each service. If the airline follows the ultra-dense all-economy configuration of Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific, more than 450 passengers could fly on an A330-900. Greenway also noted enhanced cargo capabilities with bigger planes able to transport up to 25 tonnes of air freight.
Stretching the Low-Cost Model
To optimize efficiencies, most low-cost airlines prefer to operate a single type, or family, of aircraft. For example, Southwest exclusively flies the Boeing 737 and easyJet only operates variants of the Airbus A320. The prospect of a separate sub-fleet of larger widebody jets suggests flyadeal thinks the benefits will outweigh the extra operational complexity.
Speaking to Skift in Dubai, Greenway highlighted that the airline already operates a small number of widebody planes as part of short-term leasing arrangements. Flyadeal uses up to five twin-aisle jets to serve seasonal spikes in pilgrim and religious traffic.
A formal order for its own year-round widebodies will present additional challenges and opportunities. Adding the Boeing 787 Dreamliner would offer fleet commonality with stablemate Saudia Airlines, while the Airbus A330 would be a faster transition for its pilots who are already trained on A320 aircraft.
The flyadeal chief wouldn’t be drawn on specific routes, however he offered examples of how broadly the airline could expand. “Everything from pilgrims coming from the U.K. for Hajj or Umrah, to work traffic coming from southeast Asia – Thailand for example.”
Flyadeal is the budget subsidiary of Saudia, the country’s national carrier. Since launching in 2017, it’s grown to become one of the nation’s biggest low-cost operators. For his part, Greenway was a founding member and CCO of Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ budget subsidiary, and also served as president of Swoop, a Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier that later merged with WestJet.
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