The low-cost Saudi carrier flynas on Monday signed an US$8.6 billion deal with the European plane manufacturer Airbus to purchase 80 A320neo single-aisle jets.
The flynas chairman Ayed Al Jeaid said at the signing ceremony in Riyadh that the deal includes an option for 40 more of the short to medium-haul planes in what airline executives said is a growing domestic market.
Bander Al Mohanna, the chief executive of NAS Holding, of which flynas is a division, signed the agreement with Fouad Attar, the Middle East director for the European aerospace company.
Mr Mohanna said following the ceremony that the deal was made for flynas “to play a leading role in the market”.
Delivery would begin next year and continue until at least 2026, flynas executives said.
The 10-year-old airline exclusively operates the A320, leasing almost 30 of the aircraft, and its passenger numbers now exceed six million annually, executives said.
State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines, known as Saudia, is the dominant player and aims to expand its own fleet to 200 aircraft by 2020.
Saudia flew more than 29 million passengers in 2015, and in June last year placed an $8bn order with Airbus for 50 planes for domestic flights.
Two new entrants, Nesma and SaudiGulf, have launched domestic flights but Mr Al Jeaid said: “We don’t believe that such competition threatens us.”
He said flynas had chosen Airbus over the planes of one other company, which he did not name.
Under its wide-ranging Vision 2030 plan announced in April, Saudi Arabia aims to diversify its oil-dependent economy.
Among the measures is development of the tourism sector, privatisation of state-owned services including airports, and a linking of transport networks to position Saudi Arabia as a regional logistics hub.
Even before it unveiled its economic reform plan, the Arab world’s largest economy was spending billions of dollars on building and upgrading airports.
The flynas shareholder Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, has also announced that flynas – in which KHC owns a 34 per cent stake in the carrier – had agreed to the order with Airbus.
* Reuters
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