Saudia has slightly adjusted its planned routes for its premium-heavy Airbus A321XLRs, which will begin serving Paris, France, instead of Mauritius, between June and October 2026.
As first reported by AeroRoutes, instead of Mauritius Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport (MRU), Saudia’s A321XLRs will fly to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) between June and October.
It will deploy its A321XLRs to MRU in November, Cirium’s Diio Mi showed, which could still change considering that it has filed almost all of its A320, A321, and A321XLR aircraft itineraries under a single aircraft type.
Saudia’s A321XLR network
According to Cirium’s Diio Mi, in October, Saudia will offer 28 weekly departures with its 144-seat A321XLR aircraft, flying the single-aisle jets from either Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) or Riyadh King Khalid International Airport (RUH).
Barring the domestic JED-RUH connection, as well as the JED-Malé-Velana International Airport (MLE) route, its A321XLRs will fly to five European destinations during the month, including Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) in Russia.
In general, out of the six international destinations served with the A321XLR in October, only one, CDG, will have flights with other aircraft types, namely the Boeing 787-9, on the JED-CDG route.
Cirium’s Diio Mi showed that on all of the A321XLR’s routes from JED this October, the airline had widebody services on flights to CDG, GVA, and Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) during the same month last year, while it had no flights from JED to MLE and Vienna Airport (VIE) in October 2025.
That means that in October, Saudia will offer 5.2% fewer weekly departing seats between JED and CDG, and 56% and 51% fewer departing seats on JED-GVA and JED-MAD, respectively.
Thus, the arrival of its A321XLRs will help the airline to adjust according to the demand on specific routes. On international A321XLR flights from RUH, the type will replace the A330-300s that flew RUH-GVA and A320s on RUH-SVO, which had operated the flights in October 2025.
Saudia is also adding an extra weekly frequency on flights between RUH and SVO, Cirium’s Diio Mi indicated.
Premium-heavy cabin configuration
Compared to other current operators of the A321XLR, Saudia will have a premium-heavy cabin configuration on the aircraft type. The Middle Eastern airline, which has ordered up to 15 A321XLRs, will configure the jet with 24 business and 120 economy class seats.
While on one end of the spectrum, Wizz Air’s A321XLRs have an all-economy layout with 239 seats, other mainline carriers, like Aer Lingus, Iberia, or Qantas, offer between 180 and 200 seats on their A321XLR aircraft.
The closest configuration to Saudia’s A321XLRs’ layout is American Airlines’ choice, with the United States-based airline using its Flagship suites on the single-aisle aircraft, welcoming up to 20 business, 12 premium economy, and 123 economy class passengers.
Rytis Beresnevicius
