AFP, Riyadh :
Low-cost Saudi carrier flynas has concluded an $8.6 billion purchase deal with Airbus, a major shareholder said Thursday, as competition grows in the kingdom’s expanding market.
Kingdom Holding Co, which owns a 34 percent stake in the airline, said flynas has finalised the “deal with Airbus for the purchase of new aircraft”.
It gave no details of the number or type of planes that flynas will acquire but a source close to the negotiations told AFP they are from the A320 family of single-aisle aircraft.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that a flynas order for A320 short- to medium-haul jets was imminent, and that the airline had been considering a deal for 60 planes with an option on 40 more. The 10-year-old airline exclusively operates the A320, with a fleet of 29 as of last February, according to its website. It serves 33 domestic and international destinations in the Arabian Peninsula and immediate vicinity.
With new-found cash flow and profitability, flynas is ready to expand its fleet-currently all leased-to more than 100 planes over the next decade, CEO Paul Byrne told arabianbusiness.com in an interview last March.
Low-cost Saudi carrier flynas has concluded an $8.6 billion purchase deal with Airbus, a major shareholder said Thursday, as competition grows in the kingdom’s expanding market.
Kingdom Holding Co, which owns a 34 percent stake in the airline, said flynas has finalised the “deal with Airbus for the purchase of new aircraft”.
It gave no details of the number or type of planes that flynas will acquire but a source close to the negotiations told AFP they are from the A320 family of single-aisle aircraft.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that a flynas order for A320 short- to medium-haul jets was imminent, and that the airline had been considering a deal for 60 planes with an option on 40 more. The 10-year-old airline exclusively operates the A320, with a fleet of 29 as of last February, according to its website. It serves 33 domestic and international destinations in the Arabian Peninsula and immediate vicinity.
With new-found cash flow and profitability, flynas is ready to expand its fleet-currently all leased-to more than 100 planes over the next decade, CEO Paul Byrne told arabianbusiness.com in an interview last March.
