SaudiGulf Airlines (SGQ, Dammam) has penned an agreement with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) concerning the proposed purchase of widebody aircraft. The signing ceremony between Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Muilenburg, and his counterpart at SaudiGulf, Tariq Al-Qahtani, took place in Riyadh this weekend during U.S. President Donald Trump's first visit to Saudi Arabia.

Though the US manufacturer has thus far only alluded to talks concerning the acquisition of sixteen unspecified aircraft, Saudi state television has said the carrier is looking at the B777 Family in particular.

Should an order be placed, SaudiGulf will become the desert kingdom's second large-scale operator of in-house widebody aircraft after Saudia (SV, Jeddah International). Local hybrid carrier flynas (XY, Riyadh) briefly operated A330s during its shortlived long-haul experiment back in 2014. It now wet-leases in A330 and B767 metal to cover its Hajj charter requirements.

For its part, SaudiGulf is currently an all-Airbus operator employing a fleet of three A320-200s, connecting Dammam, Abha, Jeddah International, and Riyadh. The carrier will also lease up to twenty-six A220-300s from the Al Qahtani Aviation Company. The first aircraft are said to be delivered from Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) later this year although this is subject to official confirmation.

The Al Qahtani Aviation Company and SaudiGulf Airlines are both owned by Saudi Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al-Qahtani & Sons Group of Companies (Tariq Al-Qahtani & Bros).