Riyadh Air Launches Daily Dubai Flights from 18 June 2026 — Schedule, Fares and What to Expect
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There is a particular buzz at Dubai International when a brand-new airline taxis in for the first time — the gate staff lingering for a look, the aviation fans pressed to the glass, the sense that the city's map of the world just gained another thread. This week that thread runs north to Riyadh, and it is being woven by the Gulf's most-watched aviation start-up.
As What's On reported, Riyadh Air — Saudi Arabia's glossy new national carrier — launches a daily service between Riyadh and Dubai on Thursday 18 June 2026. After years of anticipation, the airline is finally flying, and Dubai is one of its very first destinations. Here is everything you need to book it well: the schedule, the fares, the aircraft, and my honest take on what it means for anyone shuttling along this busy corridor.
The route and the schedule
From 18 June 2026, Riyadh Air operates a daily round trip on the Riyadh–Dubai route. According to The National, flight RX 243 departs King Khalid International Airport (RUH) Terminal 2 at 2.05pm and lands at Dubai International's Terminal 1 at 5pm; the return, RX 244, leaves Dubai at 6.30pm and touches down in Riyadh by 7.20pm. It is a tidy, same-day-turnaround pairing that suits both a day of meetings and a short city break. Times are as of June 2026 and can change — always reconfirm on your booking before you travel.
RX 243 (Riyadh → Dubai) — departs King Khalid International Airport (RUH) Terminal 2 at 2.05pm, arrives Dubai International (DXB) Terminal 1 at 5pm.
RX 244 (Dubai → Riyadh) — departs DXB at 6.30pm, arrives RUH by 7.20pm.
Frequency — daily from 18 June 2026.
Aircraft — brand-new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Fares and how to book
The pricing is keen for a launch route. As of mid-June 2026, return economy fares between Riyadh and Dubai have been advertised from around AED 395 — reported elsewhere as roughly SAR 1,108 or about $295 for an economy return. As ever with launch fares, the lead-in price covers limited seats and the cheapest fare classes; expect it to rise as the cabin fills and around peak dates. Treat these numbers as indicative and confirm the live fare at the time of booking.
Bookings are open through the Riyadh Air website and app, as well as approved travel agents. You can compare cabins and grab the current fare directly on the Riyadh Air booking page; I always cross-check the airline's own site against an agent quote, because launch promotions sometimes live in one place and not the other.
The Riyadh Air experience
Riyadh Air is Saudi Arabia's ambitious second flag carrier, backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund and built from scratch around a modern, design-led brand and a young Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet. The Dreamliner experience matters on a short hop like this: bigger windows, lower cabin altitude and quieter engines make even a 90-minute sector feel fresher than an older narrow-body. The Dubai route is one of six international services the airline is rolling out this summer, alongside London, Jeddah, Cairo, Madrid and Manchester.
What I will be watching is the on-board product. Riyadh Air has built its whole identity around design — from the deep-indigo livery to a digital-first booking and loyalty experience — and a wide-body Dreamliner on a sub-two-hour route is generous metal for the distance, which usually means a more comfortable cabin and proper business-class seats rather than a cramped commuter jet. For now the airline is still finding its rhythm, so I would treat the early weeks as a soft launch and judge the polished version once the schedule beds in.
My tip for any inaugural-period flight: book a week or two in, not day one. Brand-new airlines ironing out their first schedules can see early wobbles, and by late June the operation will have settled — same shiny Dreamliner, fewer first-week nerves.
Why it matters for Dubai travellers
Riyadh–Dubai is one of the busiest air corridors in the Gulf, long served by Emirates, flydubai and the Saudi carriers. A confident new entrant means more daily capacity, more competition on fares, and more choice of schedule and onward connections through Riyadh. For Dubai's large Saudi business and leisure community — and for residents eyeing a quick Riyadh weekend or an onward hop into Riyadh Air's growing network — that is unambiguously good news. Even if you never fly the airline, more competition on a route this heavily travelled tends to keep every carrier's fares and schedules sharper, which is exactly what frequent Riyadh–Dubai flyers have been hoping for.
A few practical notes before you fly: the Dubai service uses DXB Terminal 1, while the Riyadh end is Terminal 2 at King Khalid International — worth knowing for airport transfers and pick-ups. Check the baggage allowance for your fare class at booking, since the lead-in economy fares can be hand-baggage led, and give yourself buffer for a new airline still building its ground operation.
Pair it with
If you are tracking how Dubai's skies are changing this year, read my roundup of the new UAE flight routes for 2026 and the international airlines returning to Dubai this summer; and to understand where you will actually fly from in the years ahead, see my guide to the DXB to Al Maktoum move timeline.
Not sponsored. Routes, schedules, aircraft, terminals and fares are set by Riyadh Air and the airports and can change without notice — confirm all details on Riyadh Air's official channels before booking or travelling. Fares quoted are indicative as of June 2026.
Photos: Luca Cavallin and Karsten Winegeart via Unsplash (representative Boeing 787 and cabin), Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons (Dubai International Airport), and Sarvaswa Tandon via Unsplash (Dubai skyline); reviewed this session for subject and quality.
— Angel Tyagi, Creator of Angel In Dubai
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