In late 2025, Delta announced plans to launch nonstop flights between Atlanta (ATL) and Riyadh (RUH), with Delta CEO Ed Bastian recently claiming that Saudi Arabia is one of his favorite places that he has been in a very long time. The airline is partnering with Riyadh Air, but beyond that, the company is obviously chasing subsidies, given that Saudi Arabia is paying airlines to fly to Riyadh.
With this route expected to launch in roughly three months, here’s an interesting question — will Delta actually move forward with this service, or will it delay the launch?
In this post:
We’re now approaching 90 days until the Atlanta to Riyadh route launches, so how are things looking? Of course load factors in advance of a flight aren’t accessible by the public, but instead, we can only look at seat maps.
Seat maps are never a 100% accurate indicator of how full a flight is. That being said, they give you a good sense of things, especially on an airline that typically doesn’t charge for seat assignments (as is the case for Delta on long haul flights, at least for the most part).
So it’s entirely possible that the number of people booked is higher than the number of seats that show as occupied, but it’s unlikely to be by an order of magnitude. So, how are things looking as of now? Let’s ignore the October 23 inaugural flight from Atlanta to Riyadh, since there will likely be some media on there. After that (the flight doesn’t operate on October 31):
- The October 24 flight shows five seats as occupied
- The October 25 flight shows one seat as occupied
- The October 26 flight shows zero seat as occupied
- The October 27 flight shows zero seat as occupied
- The October 28 flight shows two seat as occupied
- The October 29 flight shows zero seat as occupied
- The October 30 flight shows zero seat as occupied
- The November 1 flight shows zero seat as occupied
By my math, there are eight seats assigned on the first eight non-inaugural flights. That’s an average of one seat per flight.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
Your source for the travel news. This is crafted specifically to exhibit the use of the theme as a travel site.
Related Posts
