There are some flights that feel more significant than others. Riyadh Air's RX659 from Riyadh to Islamabad was one of them. On 14 August 2026, Pakistan's Independence Day, Riyadh Air launched its new service between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and we recreated the inaugural flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
For this flight, I operated Riyadh Air RX659 (RXI659) aboard the Boeing 787-9 HZ-RXAG, departing from King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and flying to Islamabad International Airport. The flight was conducted live on VATSIM, with live network traffic and ATC, while BeyondATC supplemented the environment with real-world traffic based on FlightRadar24 data.
The Flight
The aircraft departed Riyadh (OERK) from Runway 33R and followed the RAPM2D departure, continuing via RAPMA before joining the route towards Pakistan. The total recorded distance was 1,755 nautical miles, with a real flight time of 3 hours 38 minutes and a block time of 3 hours 54 minutes.
The flight was operated with 338 passengers onboard, making for a particularly busy and realistic long-haul operation. Across the flight, the 787-9 consumed approximately 19,700 kg of fuel.
The aircraft reached a maximum recorded cruise altitude of approximately 40,000 ft, settling into a long cruise across the region before beginning the descent towards Islamabad.
Arrival into Islamabad
The arrival was completed smoothly, with the aircraft touching down at a recorded 126 knots. The landing produced a -165.96 ft/min landing rate, with a recorded touchdown G-force of 1.02 G — a very respectable result for the inaugural sector.
The flight recorder recorded the aircraft as being on blocks at 14:48 BST, compared with the scheduled on-block time of 19:00 BST. The recorded off-block time was 15:30 BST, against a scheduled departure of 15:25 BST. The flight was therefore recorded as departing 5 minutes after schedule, with the tracking data recording the flight as early overall. The displayed block and on-block timestamps appear to reflect differing time references, so the recorded flight and block durations are the more useful measures of the actual simulator flight.
Flight Statistics
*The tracking display reports these timestamps in a way that appears inconsistent with the recorded block duration, so the displayed timestamps should be treated separately from the recorded 3h 54m block time.
A Significant New Route
What made RX659 particularly special was not simply the aircraft or the destination. This was a recreation of Riyadh Air's inaugural Riyadh–Islamabad service, operated on Pakistan's Independence Day.
The route represents another step in Riyadh Air's rapidly expanding international network and strengthens the growing air links between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Flying the inaugural sector virtually, with live VATSIM ATC and real-world traffic simulation, provided an opportunity to recreate the operation as closely as possible within Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
From pushback at Riyadh to touchdown in Islamabad, RX659 was a memorable sector — and one that will be particularly interesting to revisit as Riyadh Air's network continues to grow.
Flight complete.
RX659 | OERK → OPIS | Boeing 787-9 | HZ-RXAG
All flight statistics recorded from the completed Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 flight.
