Market notes
On chartering from Riyadh
Riyadh is the fastest-changing private-aviation market in the Gulf, and the physical evidence is on the north side of King Khalid International. The airport has two parallel 4,205 m runways at 625 m elevation and a general aviation complex separate from the four passenger terminals. Business traffic clears through the Private Aviation Terminal, with a distinct Royal Terminal reserved for state and royal movements. For a city that recorded 212,632 aircraft movements in 2018 and has grown since, the private side stays notably uncongested because it is physically separated from the airline operation.
The FBO lineup has thickened considerably in the last few years. Jet Aviation operates an FBO in the Private Aviation Terminal and has put money into redesigning the facility, Saudia Private Aviation runs its own operation on the field, ExecuJet has expanded its Saudi presence through its local partnership covering both the Royal Terminal and the private terminal, and Red C Aviation is listed at OERK as well. Universal Aviation has announced plans to open in Riyadh, and the civil aviation regulator has been tendering additional private-aviation terminal capacity. For a charter customer this means real competition on handling quotes, which was not the case a decade ago.
Operationally, Riyadh is easy on aircraft and slightly harder on paperwork. The runway length and the moderate elevation mean an ultra-long-range jet can leave for London or New York at full fuel in August without shedding passengers, which is not true at every field in the region. Permits are the variable. Saudi landing and overflight approvals through GACA are routine for established operators, but a non-Saudi operator arranging a first movement into the Kingdom should plan on 24 to 48 hours rather than same-day clearance, and both Ramadan and Hajj stretch those timelines.
Route demand splits cleanly. The Riyadh to Jeddah sector, roughly 850 km, is the busiest domestic private corridor in Saudi Arabia and is comfortable on a midsize jet in under two hours. Intra-GCC to Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Bahrain fills most of the rest of the weekday movement list. Then there is the summer exodus, when Saudi families move to London, Geneva, Nice, Marbella and Istanbul, and the aircraft class jumps to heavy and ultra-long-range for weeks at a time. Those seasonal flows are what make the Riyadh empty-leg market worth watching.
