First regular flight between Saudi Arabia and Russia landed at Vnukovo
The Saudi low-cost airline Flynas' flight from Riyadh to Moscow was operated by an Airbus A320neo
MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. The first direct regular flight between Saudi Arabia and Russia landed at the Moscow-based Vnukovo airport, at 01:46 p.m. (Moscow time), according to the airport's online board.
The Saudi low-cost airline Flynas' flight from Riyadh to Moscow was operated by an Airbus A320neo. According to the airport's online board, the plane departed at 08:42 a.m. instead of 08:20 a.m.
The first flight from Moscow to Riyadh is expected to depart at 03:00 p.m. Moscow time and arrive at 08:40 p.m. Travel time will be just over 5.5 hours. Check-in for the flight began at 11:46 a.m. Moscow time.
Flynas can operate flights 4 times a week, starting from August 1 until the end of the current spring-summer navigation (October 25), on Airbus A320/330 aircraft.
As Russia’s Transport Ministry noted, until now there have been no regular flights between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Deputy Minister of Transport Vladimir Poteshkin said that the launch of direct air traffic between the countries became possible thanks to 3 years of joint work of the ministry and the Federal Air Transport Agency with colleagues from Saudi Arabia, with the active support of the Federation Council and the Prosecutor General's Office. As a result of this work the Federal Air Transport Agency issued permission to Flynas to operate regular flights on the Riyadh-Moscow route.
Air traffic between Russia and Saudi Arabia was interrupted in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. After the lifting of strict restrictions, direct flights between the countries were not resumed due to low demand for tourist travel.
In May of this year, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reported that Saudi Arabia had entered the top three largest foreign markets for Russian inbound tourism for the first time. In the first quarter of 2019, only 210 Saudi nationals visited Russia. In the first quarter of 2025, their number increased 47 times to 9,900. Saudi Arabia also became the absolute leader in terms of growth rates of inbound tourism to Russia (+65.2% compared to the first quarter of 2024).