After a great Saudia First Class flight from London to Riyadh and 4 hours in the AlFursan First Class Lounge, I boarded the first morning flight of Saudia to Dubai. Saudia operate 6 daily flights between the capital Riyadh and Dubai. This is one of the busiest air routes in the Middle East with 17+ flights per day.
The morning flight was operated by a less than 1 year old A330-300. This A330 has new Business Class with 2-2-2 config, a total of 30 seats inside. This is a vast improvement over the old version which has 36 recliner seats that I've flown in 2011 from Dubai to Jeddah via Madinah.The seats can go fully flat which is impressive for the regional flight. It is a bit narrow but more than acceptable. Saudia A330 flies mainly to high density regional destinations. It is unsure whether the older Saudia A330s will receive an update of the cabin so there may be 2 variations of cabin offering around.
A full breakfast was served on this 1.5 hours flights. The other choices were arabic breakfast or ful medames.Saudia also offer free WhatsApp on-board. Interesting!
The flight was light so it was really pleasant in the almost empty cabin though the crew told me they expect a full load on the return. I took another nap and woke up when we about to land in Dubai. Connection via Riyadh proved to be very easy and simple if you're flying on Saudia.