FLYR Powers Riyadh Air’s Debut as World’s First Full-Service Airline Built for Modern Retailing

The world-class Saudi carrier launches with FLYR’s Offer & Order platform that enables a fundamentally new and customer-centric way to shop, book, and manage travel

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FLYR, the technology company leading the airline industry toward modern commerce, marks a historic milestone today as its partner, Riyadh Air, the world’s newest and only digitally-native airline, becomes the first full-service carrier to launch based exclusively on an Offer & Order framework.

FLYR Offer & Order enables Riyadh Air to deliver a modern retail experience, offering dynamic product and service groupings directly to its guests, with advanced shopping cart functionality that rivals major online retailers and delivers the connected, intuitive experience customers have come to expect from their digital interactions.

Since IATA introduced NDC protocols in 2012, airlines have worked to improve how they merchandise and distribute products and generate revenue, aiming to operate like modern ecommerce businesses, but constrained by legacy systems. Built on ONE Order standards, FLYR demonstrates that this ambition can now be fully realized, with Riyadh Air serving as the industry’s first live, full-scale proof point.

Riyadh Air's launch on FLYR's platform showcases the commercial agility and operational advantages of an Offer & Order architecture, including the ability to launch new products and capabilities in minutes, not months, a pervasive challenge across the industry. In collaboration with IBM, the platform brings together multiple technology providers into a single operating environment and shopping experience.

"As a core pillar to building a world-class digital native modern airline, we challenged ourselves to rethink all the hows and whys of the operation of legacy airline systems," said Tony Douglas, CEO at Riyadh Air. "FLYR has designed and delivered a platform that can quickly adapt and scale to our needs and pushes the boundaries of what airline retailing can be. The platform will be the backbone of our commercial operations for decades to come and creates a path for other carriers to follow." 

The New Way to Book, Manage, and Experience a Trip

Travelers using the Riyadh Air app will experience a reimagined booking journey, including a dynamic shopping cart that lets them save trips and searches, return at their convenience, and receive relevant offers related to their booking. Journeys are managed in a single, real-time order rather than a collection of separate products and services. Guests will also benefit from faster, simpler servicing of any post-booking changes.

Future developments will include collaborative trip planning within the shopping cart, allowing friends and families to create and customize itineraries together. The order management system that unifies flight bookings today is designed to incorporate hotels and other accommodations, ground transportation, and destination experiences, enabling Riyadh Air to offer the full journey, beyond the flight.

“Airlines have long aspired to become retailers but have been largely confined to selling tickets. That’s no longer true,” said Alex Mans, Founder and CEO of FLYR. “Riyadh Air shows that a different approach is now possible, even within an industry shaped by entrenched systems. They are a live case study for a sector that has debated modern retailing for more than a decade.”

An Offer & Order Platform Built for Modern Airline Retailing

FLYR’s Offer & Order platform replaces the static airline “ticket” with a dynamic “order,” enabling Riyadh Air to become the world’s first airline to natively extend its offering beyond flights to include new products and services from partners and third-party travel suppliers.

At the core of FLYR’s platform are Offer and Order Management. Offer Management enables Riyadh Air to create and distribute dynamic and tailored offers across all channels, supporting airline-defined products, flexible bundles, and third-party services without relying on rigid fare structures. Order Management unifies the customer’s journey, including flights, ancillaries, and partner products, into a single order record, simplifying servicing and removing friction from the travel experience.

These elements are supported by FLYR’s modular approach and Legacy Translator technology, which connect the platform to third-party systems, enabling cross-environment compatibility. This connectivity enables FLYR’s Offer and Order solutions to integrate with legacy systems, such as a GDS, or to be used by airlines actively transitioning to new retailing practices.

“Modularity is one of the airline industry’s central challenges, particularly how multiple vendors work together without reverting to legacy monoliths,” said Dee Waddell, Global Head of Consumer, Travel & Transportation Industries at IBM. “Riyadh Air chose partners building for the future while operating in today’s reality. FLYR’s architecture allows those partners to work together most effectively.”

At a time when just 25% of airlines expect to have fully implemented Offer & Order by 2027-28, according to IATA’s Readiness and Roadmap report, FLYR and Riyadh Air are showing that implementing a modern retailing strategy is both realistic and achievable today.

For more information about FLYR and its partnership with Riyadh Air, or to speak with Alex Mans, CEO of FLYR, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com.

About FLYR
FLYR is modernizing airline commerce as the technology leader in Offer and Order retailing. Its open, modular platform and proprietary Legacy Translator technology integrate seamlessly with existing systems, enabling airlines to innovate faster and deliver flexible, customer-centric retail experiences. Trusted by leading carriers worldwide, FLYR powers mission-critical retailing operations that define the future of travel. To learn more about FLYR's Offer & Order platform, visit FLYR.com.

About Riyadh Air
Riyadh Air is a digitally native airline focused on achieving the Kingdom's 2030 vision to lead the aviation industry and put Riyadh on the global map as a destination and gateway to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The establishment of Riyadh Air is in line with PIF's mandate to unlock the capabilities of key sectors locally to drive the diversification of Saudi Arabia's economy. The airline will also support the Saudi Aviation Strategy's broader vision, and enable the National Tourism Strategy, unlocking Saudi Arabia's cultural and natural attractions to international tourists and creating new jobs.

Source
IATA’s Readiness and Roadmap report

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b424aaf3-74d9-4446-b7a1-939c1ccd41b8