The low-cost airline Flynas intends to expand significantly over the next few years and increase existing new orders to 250 aircraft. The board of directors of the carrier, based in Riyadh, gave the go-ahead for the management's plan.

The Flynas fleet currently consists of “only” 38 commercial aircraft. Furthermore, one waits for the delivery of 80 more machines. The orders are to be increased to 250 aircraft of various types. Bases outside of Saudi Arabia are also being considered.

“The Flynas Board of Directors' decision to increase our new aircraft orders to 250 supports our efforts to deliver on the civil aviation strategy and reflects the Board's belief in the growth opportunities and positive prospects of domestic and international markets,” said Managing Director Bander Almohanna .

Among the aircraft already on order, the Airbus A320neo dominates with 66 aircraft, which are in addition to the 21 aircraft that Flynas already has in service. In addition, the airline has ordered 10 A321XLRs and four A330-300s, the latter type being sourced second-hand. It has not yet been decided where the additional machines will be ordered. The patterns are not yet fixed. Airbus should have very good cards, but one is also talking to the competitor Boeing.

“We will study aircraft with different performance characteristics to fly to new destinations, improve the connection of the world to the kingdom, promote tourism and help transport pilgrims and umrah participants. Flynas is currently in talks with aircraft manufacturers to finalize agreements,” Almohanna said. “We see great opportunities for expansion, supported by the Kingdom's strategic location and the perspectives opened up for the aviation sector by the Saudi Vision 2030. This is underpinned by the launch of the civil aviation strategy, which aims to increase annual passenger traffic to 330 million and connect KSA to more than 2030 destinations worldwide by 250.”