Saudia is Starting Flights to Tokyo

For SkyTeam frequent fliers, there’s some good news out of the Middle East. Later this year, Saudia is starting flights to Tokyo.

Adding itself to the list of fellow gulf carriers Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways that fly to the Japanese capital, Saudia Arabia’s national airline will commence nonstop flights this autumn.

With a launch date of 17 November, utilizing a Boeing 787-9, Saudia will be flying to Tokyo Narita thrice weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

SV824, departs Riyadh (RUH) 01:00, arrives Tokyo Narita (NRT) 17:25 (roughly 10.5 hour flight)
SV825, departs Tokyo Narita 21:30, arrives Riyadh 05:25 the following days (roughly 14 hour flight)

Whereas Saudia can overfly Russia — and indeed flies to Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) — recent conflicts, and of course, headwinds coming west combine to make the return trip that much longer.

Nevertheless, in the past few years I’ve flown Saudia both in economy and business. It’s quite underrated in many aspects, and if it matters to you, has a better in-flight entertainment IFE system than many East Asian carriers. Customer service is another matter, as is the wonky visa-free transit scheme, but as long as things are working, I’d choose Saudia over many other airlines.

Since they’ll be using Tokyo Narita’s Terminal 1, just like many other SkyTeam members including Delta and Korean Air — I wonder which lounge they’ll contract. On that note, I don’t think any of Japan’s airline-run lounges are superlative, but they’re certainly better than the duty-free troughs that line the rest of the terminals.