Saudi budget carrier flyadeal on Wednesday confirmed a deal to order 10 Airbus A330neo wide-body passenger jets as it expands into fast-growing long-haul markets in Southeast Asia.
The sister airline of state-owned national carrier Saudia said it had also acquired purchase rights for a further 10 of the Rolls-Royce-powered planes, also known as A330-900.
The announcement at a ceremony in Toulouse confirms details reported by Reuters in January. The deal - which had previously been listed by Airbus as an unidentified buyer - is worth $1.2 billion after typical discounts, according to estimated delivery price data from UK-based consultancy Cirium Ascend.
Saudi Arabia’s aviation sector is expanding as the kingdom invests billions of dollars in its Vision 2030 plan to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels and boost its private sector.
Flyadeal has not yet finalised routes for the jets but plans to target the busy Southeast Asia market - the latest low-cost airline to seek to break into long-haul flying, which has been a tricky bet for some budget carriers due to complexity and cost.
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“I can pretty well guarantee that it’s going to be Southeast Asia - Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia or the Philippines,” flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway told Reuters of the planned route expansion.
The airline will also be able to carry more passengers into congested regional markets like Dubai.
Greenway, a former senior executive at Singapore Airlines subsidiary Scoot, has said flyadeal aims for 100 jets by 2030.
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