Also, the article seems to frame it that Ridley said that, like the Blade Runner series, the Alien series currently has a pilot written and a show bible in place for the season. I think this may just be the article conflating Ridley's words and assuming that Alien is only as far along as Blade Runner, however, because in an interview a few months back Hawley stated at the time that two episodes of Alien had already been written. What I'd imagine Ridley probably said here is that the pilot/show bible writing process for Blade Runner is the same internal approach they took with Alien, and the reporter took that to mean that both projects are equally far along in that process.
Unless the article is accurate there and they went back to square one to rewrite Alien from the beginning, I guess? I'm inclined to think the article is just mixed up on that point, though - there's no direct quote attributed to that section, after all.