Saudi state airline plans aircraft order

Saudi Arabia Airlines chief to begin talks to acquire Boeing or Airbus planes before the end of the year

Saudi Arabian Airlines will start talks with Airbus and Boeing about a narrow-body aircraft order before the end of the year, the state carrier’s top executive said yesterday.

The requirement for flyadeal, its new low-cost subsidiary airline, will be for “probably 30 ... single-aisle aircraft,” Director-General Saleh Bin Nasser Al Jasser told Reuters in Dubai.

The talks aimed at acquiring Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft will start “much sooner” than December 31, he said at a meeting between aviation authorities from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

International routes

Flyadeal launched domestic flights in September and plans to start operating international routes by mid2018. It has agreed to lease eight A320s from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) with the August.

Al Jasser had said before flyadeal’s launch that the airline would operate an entirely leased fleet of between 25 and 50 aircraft by 2020.

Earlier, Al Jasser told reporters that Saudi Arabian Airlines could list shares in its cargo business next year.

Under Saudia’s privatisation plan it aims to next float 30 per cent of the shares in the cargo subsidiary, a share market listing which “could be in 2018,” Al Jasser said. first delivered

Medical business

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He said after that the airline’s private aviation or medical business could be listed.

Reuters reported in May that Saudia had engaged with advisers for the full sale of its medical unit, which is called Saudia Medical Services, based in Jeddah.

The airline has also said it plans to list its maintenance and flight academy units, and the airline itself.

Saudi Airlines Catering Co raised $347 million (Dh1.3 billion) with an IPO of 30 per cent of its shares in 2012. Saudi Ground Services Co was listed in 2015.