Air Arabia to buy 34 aircraft for $2.38b

DUBAI: Air Arabia, the Middle East's largest low-cost carrier, said yesterday it would order 34 aircraft worth as much as $2.38 billion by September from European planemaker Airbus or its US rival Boeing.

The UAE-based airline will fund the purchase with cash from its $700 million initial public stock offering in April and other financing, Air Arabia spokesman Housam Raydan said.

"We are still in negotiations for the purchase order to acquire planes. We hope to conclude in the coming three months," Raydan said.

The Paris Air Show set to run from Monday to June 24 is the world's largest and a major event for plane order announcements.

Air Arabia chief executive Adel Ali said in January the carrier would order 34 short-haul aircraft worth between $1.7bn and $2.38bn. It was in early talks with Airbus, a unit of EADS, and Boeing about buying their respective A320 and 737 models, he said at the time.

The three-year old carrier, set up by the government of the Sharjah, expects to increase its fleet to 52 by 2016 from nine leased Airbus A320s, Raydan said.

The company sold a 55pc stake in the Middle East's first airline IPO in April.

Air Arabia, which made a profit of $8bn in 2005, flies to 35 destinations in the Middle East and Asia.

The airline carried 1.7m passengers last year, 54pc more than in 2005. Ali said it expects to carry 2.2m this year.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.as ... ueID=30086

That is B for billion, I had to open it to see what they were flying... I figured it was Cessna's as 2million will not go that far anymore ;)

they are in the same position as US Airways, I would say the 737s

FYI the little UAE is made up of 7 rather autonomous emirates (you can think of them like states, but with more local power) and now has 3 airlines. There is apparently about to be a fourth, so here's a bit of a primer for those who are interested.

There is Emirates (Dubai emirate) as everyone knows, Etihad (Abu Dhabi) which is now growing rapidly, Air Arabia (Sharjah) which is modeled as an LCC and in the works is RAK Airways (Ras Al Khaimah). All have 'national airline' status and I wonder how long it will be before the remaining emirates of Umm Al Quain, Ajman, and Fujairah decide to start their own airlines too!