Saudia Group - the leading carrier of Saudi Arabia, announced the largest aircraft purchase deal in its history. It struck a deal with European aircraft manufacturer Airbus for 105 aircraft worth a total of USD 19 billion.
The announcement was made during the opening day of the third edition of the Future Aviation Forum 2024 at the “King Abdulaziz“ International Conference Center. in Riyadh.
The deal includes A320neo and A321neo models. The machines will be shared between Saudia and flyadeal, the group's budget airline. Saudi Arabia will purchase 54 A321neo aircraft, while flyadeal will receive 12 A320neo and 39 A321neo aircraft.
„This agreement is one of the factors for achieving the goals of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy of the country. It will contribute to improving Saudi Arabia's operational performance, increasing flights and seat capacity and launching new destinations,” said Saleh Al-Jasser, Minister of Transport and Logistics Services.
The addition of the new aircraft furthers Saudi Arabia's goals of improving connectivity between the Kingdom and the rest of the world, in line with various key aspects of Saudi Vision 2030. These goals include fulfilling transport and logistics tasks to increase passenger capacity to 330 million and expanding the range of destinations to 250 by 2030, as well as the tourism target of attracting 150 million visits by the same year.
"Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans to channel USD 100 billion into the aviation industry by 2030 in a bid to strengthen its position in the global air transport arena by improving global connectivity and building world-class facilities," said Al Jasser during the forum.
Kingdom aims to handle 5 million tonnes of cargo by 2030
Earlier this month, Airbus reported 61 aircraft deliveries in April, marking a 13% year-on-year increase and bringing total deliveries to 203 so far this year.
The aircraft maker expects to deliver 800 commercial aircraft in 2024, with adjusted earnings before interest and taxes ranging between USD 7 billion and USD 7.5 billion, and expects free cash flow before customer financing to be approximately USD 4.3 billion.