Riyadh Air has secured regulatory approval from China to operate nonstop service to Beijing Daxing and Shanghai Pudong. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) authorized three flights a week to Beijing and four flights a week to Shanghai, per the CAAC’s second-quarter 2026 international route approvals. The clearance opens a seven-flight bridge between Riyadh and mainland China on board the airline’s Boeing 787-9s.
Riyadh Air has not announced a start date for either Chinese city. The carrier’s published network today covers three international routes and one domestic route from its Riyadh King Khalid International Airport hub: London Heathrow, Jeddah, Dubai, and Cairo. Aviation Week reports that Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, and Mumbai are next on the order pad, with launches in the coming days and weeks. CEO Tony Douglas has said the airline aims to serve more than 100 destinations by the end of the decade.
Seven Weekly Flights and One Quiet Approval
The breakdown of the clearance matters: 3X-weekly between Riyadh and Beijing Daxing (PKX), plus 4X-weekly between Riyadh and Shanghai Pudong (PVG), per Aviation Week’s read of the CAAC filings. Both routes are cleared for passenger and cargo service in a single approval, a structure that lets Riyadh Air integrate freight into its passenger schedule from launch. The seven combined weekly frequencies sit inside a network that, as of mid-July 2026, runs four destinations: London Heathrow (LHR), Jeddah (JED), Dubai (DXB), and Cairo (CAI). Aviation Week notes the carrier has launched those flights using Boeing 787-9s, the same wide-body type slated for the China routes.
The CAAC’s second-quarter 2026 list reaches beyond Riyadh Air. Aviation Week reports other recent approvals in the same batch: Air Algerie for a 3X-weekly Algiers-Shanghai service using Airbus A330-900neos from October 25, Jin Air for Seoul-Yantai and Seoul-Yichang, Sun PhuQuoc Airways for Phu Quoc-Beijing and Phu Quoc-Chengdu, and Rossiya Airlines for Krasnoyarsk-Guangzhou and Krasnoyarsk-Shanghai. None of those routes mirror Riyadh Air’s PKX or PVG plans, leaving the seven-weekly Riyadh allocation as the only Saudi flag-carrier entry into mainland China on that list. The carrier’s clearance lands inside a wider wave of CAAC route authorizations, not a standalone decision. Each of those other carriers is targeting regional traffic or unique origin pairs Riyadh Air’s service does not overlap.
Saudia Still Owns 60% of the Skies to China
Saudia, the existing Saudi flag carrier, accounts for about 60% of scheduled seats between Saudi Arabia and mainland China during the summer 2026 season, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data cited by Aviation Week. The remaining capacity sits with four Chinese carriers: Hainan Airlines, China Southern, Air China, and China Eastern. Riyadh Air’s seven weekly flights, once launched, will sit inside that broader contest, with that 60% share effectively setting the bar. Beijing Capital to Riyadh is currently an Air China nonstop per the same OAG data, the only airport pair where a Chinese carrier alone holds the existing schedule.
The OAG data identifies four largest airport pairs running from mainland China specifically into Riyadh. Those four pairs are where Riyadh Air’s clearance slots in, with one carrier per route and dual-carrier sharing only on the Beijing Daxing pairing.
| From | To | Carriers |
|---|---|---|
| Guangzhou (CAN) | Riyadh (RUH) | China Southern |
| Beijing Daxing (PKX) | Riyadh (RUH) | Saudia, China Southern |
| Beijing Capital (PEK) | Riyadh (RUH) | Air China |
| Shanghai (PVG) | Riyadh (RUH) | China Eastern |
Three of those pairs run from the same Chinese cities the CAAC just cleared for Riyadh Air: Beijing Daxing (PKX), Beijing Capital (PEK), and Shanghai (PVG). Saudia and China Southern already share PKX to Riyadh; Air China flies the separate PEK route; China Eastern runs Shanghai to Riyadh. Guangzhou to Riyadh is a China Southern route and is not currently a Riyadh Air clearance point.
Aviation Week’s full ranking also lists Guangzhou to Jeddah and Haikou to Jeddah as top Saudi-China airport pairs, but those terminate at Jeddah rather than Riyadh. The CAAC clearance covers only flights operating from, or terminating at, Riyadh King Khalid International Airport, where Riyadh Air is building its hub. That existing schedule on those four airport pairs gives the new entrant a clear incumbent to measure itself against. None of the four Chinese carriers has announced frequency changes ahead of the new arrival.
The Air China Deal Was Already Done
Behind the CAAC approval sits a partnership Riyadh Air has been telegraphing since 2023. The carrier’s own partnerships page lists Air China and China Eastern partnership listings, with the deal on Air China stating it will “link Riyadh and Beijing, providing easy access to nearly 100 cities across China and boosting travel, tourism, and trade between the Kingdom and one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.” Air China already flies nonstop between Beijing Capital (PEK) and Riyadh, per the OAG airport-pair data. The new Riyadh Air nonstop to PKX therefore enters a Beijing market where the Chinese flag carrier already operates, only from a different airport. The Air China arrangement targets connecting traffic across mainland China through Riyadh, not point-to-point demand alone.
Riyadh Air’s CEO framed China as central to the carrier’s roadmap during the airline’s October 2023 delegation visit to Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. His tone on the trip, captured in Tony Douglas’s October 2023 statement on the China visit, put weight on the cooperation framework rather than the regulatory one.
China will play a very important role in our growth and we were encouraged by the level of support offered by the authorities and airports.
Tony Douglas, Riyadh Air’s CEO, used that same October 2023 China visit to set the cooperation framework as the priority, with the airline’s published release quoting him on the cooperation deals struck. The published partnerships page lists Air China as the named China-side partner for Beijing, with a separate China Eastern cooperation tied to Shanghai, plus additional carrier-level deals still being signed for other international markets. The Air China arrangement is built around “easy access to nearly 100 cities across China,” while the China Eastern partnership, per the same page, “will connect Riyadh and Shanghai, with future access to China Eastern’s wide domestic and regional network.” That two-partner structure is what sets the China approval apart from a typical CAAC route authorization: it ties each new nonstop to a specific connecting-traffic pipeline, with the Chinese flag carrier for each city already aligned as partner.
The partnership has a stated strategic shape, with the partnerships page framing the deals around “boosting travel, tourism, and trade.” Beyond that tagline, the published partnerships page lists Air China and China Eastern as the two named Chinese carrier partners, no other Chinese partner listed.
A Boeing 787-9, Configured Four Ways
The seven weekly nonstop flights to Beijing and Shanghai will be operated by Riyadh Air’s Boeing 787-9s, the aircraft type the carrier has introduced into commercial service. The 787-9 on these routes will carry up to 290 passengers in a four-class configuration: four Business Elite seats, 24 business-class seats, 39 premium economy seats, and 223 economy seats. The 787-9’s published range covers nonstop service from Riyadh to both Beijing Daxing and Shanghai Pudong.
Aviation Week notes the China approval comes “as Riyadh Air builds its international network following the arrival of its first Boeing 787-9s.” Two new 787-9s arriving at Riyadh in early June preceded the airline’s first published public commercial flights on July 1. The wide-body metal is what makes nonstop Riyadh-to-China operationally possible, since no narrow-body type in the published order list covers either Chinese city at full passenger payload. The Dreamliner’s published range also covers the planned Riyadh to Kuala Lumpur and Dhaka routes, putting the same aircraft type across the airline’s Asia-Pacific expansion.
The cabin interior on those 787-9s blends Saudi hospitality with a Western-style modern product, per the airline’s published onboard description. Business Elite and business each sit in a 1-2-1 layout with sliding privacy doors and fully flat beds, with marble-effect counters, mocha gold accents, and Bedouin-inspired canopies. Premium economy offers a 38-inch seat pitch with recliner-style seating and adjustable calf rests, while economy runs 3-3-3 with a 31-inch pitch and a 17.2-inch seat width.
Fitting China Into the 100-Destination Push
China is one slice of the carrier’s broader expansion plan. Douglas has said the airline aims to serve more than 100 destinations by the end of the decade, a target that puts the carrier on a parallel track with Saudia, the existing Saudi flag carrier. Saudia today operates nonstop to New York JFK, Washington IAD, and Los Angeles LAX from Saudi Arabia, giving the older flag carrier a transatlantic footprint. Riyadh Air picked up US Department of Transportation approval in June 2026 to operate services to the United States, though no US destinations have been announced.
- 7 weekly flights to mainland China once operational: 3 weekly to Beijing Daxing, 4 weekly to Shanghai Pudong.
- ~60% of summer 2026 Saudi-China scheduled seats held by Saudia, per OAG Schedules Analyser data.
- 4 international routes currently operating (London, Jeddah, Dubai, Cairo) plus 1 domestic, against a 100-destination target by end of decade.
- 290 seats per 787-9 across 4 classes: 4 Business Elite, 24 business, 39 premium economy, 223 economy.
- 6 cities on the order pad for the coming days and weeks: Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Mumbai.
The next six destinations are already on the order pad for Riyadh Air. Aviation Week lists service launches “to follow in the coming days and weeks” for Dhaka, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, and Mumbai. The Air India codeshare MoU signed in June 2026 complements that timetable by linking Delhi, Mumbai, and Riyadh from the Indian side.
The carrier operates as part of Saudi Arabia’s stated push to diversify the economy away from oil and turn Riyadh into a global aviation hub. The published schedule pairs that positioning with wide-body metal on routes aimed at nonstop service to planned Asia, Europe, and US destinations.
The competition is well established: Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad already run daily wide-body service between their hubs and both Beijing and Shanghai. Riyadh Air’s Air China and China Eastern deals sit inside that Gulf-hub model, with the partnerships page framing the China arrangements as bilateral cooperations rather than alliance tie-ups. The seven China frequencies will land inside a market where Saudia and four Chinese carriers already operate multi-airline capacity; the new entry adds a third layer of hub-and-spoke flow through the Saudi capital.
What the Approval Leaves Unsigned
A CAAC route authorization is the regulator’s blessing, but it is not a launch notice. Riyadh Air has not yet put tickets on sale for either Beijing Daxing or Shanghai Pudong, has not named a first-flight date, and has not allocated a specific 787-9 to the China rotation. Aviation Week reported that the carrier “has not yet announced when services to the country will begin.” The airline’s own October 2023 China-visit statements put timeline decisions with Riyadh, not Beijing. Slot times at both airports, ground handling arrangements, and fare pricing across the four-cabin configuration are still on the to-do list.
The market on the other side of the approval is not empty. Saudia already serves Beijing Daxing nonstop, listed alongside China Southern on the city pair, with Air China flying Beijing Capital to Riyadh and China Eastern running Shanghai to Riyadh. The four airport pairs that the CAAC approval sits on top of are not new market creation; they are additions to an existing Saudi-China schedule. The seven weekly frequencies, fewer than one per day combined, plug into existing flows rather than start a brand-new lane.
Frequently Asked Questions
When will Riyadh Air start flying to China?
The CAAC’s second-quarter 2026 international route approvals cleared Riyadh Air for seven weekly frequencies to mainland China. The carrier has not announced a start date, ticket-sales opening, or launch slot times; those decisions sit with Riyadh Air.
What aircraft will fly the Beijing and Shanghai routes?
Boeing 787-9s, the only aircraft type in Riyadh Air’s published fleet so far, will operate both city pairs. Each jet carries up to 290 passengers split across four cabins: four Business Elite seats, 24 in business, 39 in premium economy, and 223 in economy.
Which airlines already fly between Saudi Arabia and China?
Saudia, the existing Saudi flag carrier, holds about 60% of scheduled seats between Saudi Arabia and mainland China during the summer 2026 season, per OAG Schedules Analyser data cited by Aviation Week. The remaining capacity sits with China Southern, China Eastern, Air China, and Hainan Airlines.
How many flights per week will Riyadh Air operate to China?
Seven in total, split three flights a week to Beijing Daxing (PKX) and four flights a week to Shanghai Pudong (PVG). That is the combined weekly capacity Riyadh Air is authorised to operate from Riyadh to mainland China.
Why is the CAAC approval significant for Riyadh Air?
The clearance is Riyadh Air’s first regulatory authorisation into mainland China and its first long-haul Asia-Pacific slot. The approval also activates the carrier’s previously announced Air China and China Eastern cooperations, which the partnerships page frames around access to nearly 100 Chinese cities and a wide domestic and regional Chinese network, respectively.
