Flyadeal to decide on 50 aircraft order by mid-year: report

Flyadeal, Saudi Arabia's new budget airline, is planning to take a decision by mid-year to pick between placing a 50 aircraft order for Boeing 737 Max or for Airbus A320 Neo, The National reported, citing Sudeep Ghai, company's chief commercial officer.

“A decision is targeted for the middle of the year. The challenge for us will be that the delivery pipeline is fairly congested at the moment, so we probably have to go to the market and get some interim leased aircraft," Ghai said.

At present, Flyadeal operates a fleet of six leased Airbus A320s and will have eight planes by summer. Its current fleet is leased from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.

"The order of 50 narrow-body aircraft would cover the airline’s fleet requirements for the next five years, for both domestic and regional routes," Ghai noted.

The airline plans to open two new domestic routes and aims to be profitable within the next five years, he said.