Ionic Insights: The Installed Business Jet Fleet in Saudi Arabia (May 2022)

In this third edition of Ionic Insights, our regular country by country spotlight on the global business aviation sector, we focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We analyse the size, make-up and age of the installed fleet, whilst simultaneously investigating the most numerous aircraft registries and base locations. 

Historically the Middle East’s largest business aviation market, the installed fleet in Saudi Arabia is now smaller than that of the UAE. This is down to several factors, but the continued relocation of many multinationals and ultra-high-net-worth individuals to the Emirates, plus the fallout from 2017’s Riyadh ‘Ritz-Carlton Prison’ episode are key.

Saudi Arabia has an installed fleet of 90 aircraft*, with Gulfstream being the largest OEM by fleet size (29% of the fleet). Perhaps unsurprisingly, corporate variants of commercial aircraft – notably ‘bizliners’ manufactured by Boeing and Airbus – represent over one third of the entire base. Almost two thirds of aircraft are based in Riyadh, the political and administrative capital.

In a challenge to those seeking to finance/refinance aircraft within the Kingdom, almost two thirds of aircraft are self-managed (no third-party operator involvement), 57% are registered locally in Saudi Arabia (HZ-), and a total of 17 aircraft are owned and operated by a variety of royal, government and military entities. 

The key takeaways from this analysis are summarised in Figure 1 below.

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Figure 1: A summary of the installed fleet in Saudi Arabia. *Source: AMSTAT, May 22