Ink supports Riyadh Air's Spanish debut as new Saudi carrier opens Málaga and Madrid routes
Riyadh Air's seasonal service to Málaga began on 14 July, with a year-round route to Madrid following this Friday, 17 July — both powered behind the scenes by a passenger-handling platform built by Ink Innovation, a technology company based in Alicante.
Alicante, Spain — 17 July 2026 — Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia's new national carrier, has opened direct connections between Saudi Arabia and Spain. The airline's seasonal Riyadh–Málaga service launched on 14 July, running three times a week through 8 September, aimed at the strong summer demand between the Costa del Sol and the Gulf. A second, year-round route to Madrid follows this Friday, 17 July, with four flights a week — the new direct connection between the Spanish and Saudi capitals.
Behind the launch is Ink Innovation, an Alicante-based travel technology company whose Delivery Management Platform handles the passenger journey at every airport where Riyadh Air operates — from check-in and kiosk handling to bag drop, boarding gates and government data exchange. The same technology bringing Riyadh Air to Spanish skies is being deployed at every new station the airline opens worldwide, as it builds out a network that has grown from London to include Jeddah, Dubai, Cairo, Málaga and now Madrid.
Riyadh Air's rollout — multiple stations opened within months of its first commercial flight — compresses a process that typically takes a full-service carrier two-four months per station. Ink's platform is built to work with or without local infrastructure at each airport, which the company says allows an airline to stand up its ground operations in different environments.
For Alicante, the partnership puts a locally based company at the centre of one of the aviation sector's most closely watched airline launches this year, supporting the technology that gets passengers from check-in to boarding as Saudi Arabia opens new routes to Spain.
Riyadh Air and Ink Innovation have worked together since 2024, with the partnership first announced publicly in May 2025.
About Ink Innovation
Ink is a technology company that enables airlines and airports to modernise service delivery. Its modular, cloud-native, AI-powered platform covers passenger services, airport operations and data exchange — from check-in, boarding and baggage to payments and government integrations — with native IATA ONE Order and NDC support and more than 100 integrations. Customers include Copenhagen Airport, JFK Terminal One, Riyadh Air, Jet2 and Menzies Aviation. www.innovation.ink
About Riyadh Air
Riyadh Air, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), is the country's new national carrier. Launched in March 2023, Riyadh Air aims to serve more than 100 destinations and operate 100 aircraft by 2030, as part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 programme. www.riyadhair.com
Ink executives’ commentary and photos from the station openings (airport launches) are available on request at media@innovation.ink.
