In an industry where setbacks outnumber successes, the Middle East has been a rare exception for global aviation over the past decade and a half. The region is today a critical aviation hub connecting the two halves of the globe. Two countries, in particular, have been at the forefront of this emergence—the UAE and Qatar. Their airlines—Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, collectively called the ME3—have dominated traffic to and from the region. 

Now, there’s a challenger in the form of Saudi Arabia. It wants to mirror the success of its regional peers, and at a furious pace to boot. The …