Saudia (SV, Jeddah International) will acquire approximately one-hundred new aircraft as part of its latest Five Year Plan covering 2015 to 2020. Arab News says the decision was taken at a recent airline board meeting held last week.
“The plan focuses on strengthening Saudia’s operational efficiency, continuous modernization of fleet by purchasing more than 100 new aircraft to meet growing domestic passenger requirements and expand the airline’s international operations,” Saudia's director general, Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasse, said.
With an order for ninety new aircraft close to fulfilment, Saudia now operates a fleet of 158 aircraft ranging from A320 Family jets to B747s, B777s, E170s, and before long, B787-9s.
Last year, vice president for maintenance, Abdulrahman Altayeb, said the airline was in talks with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and Boeing (BOE, Washington National) with the A320neo and B737 MAX Families considered for narrowbody requirements while the A380-800 and the B777X were considered for widebody needs.
The carrier is gearing up for the upcoming liberalization of the domestic market which will see two new start-ups - the Qatar Airways-backed Al Maha Airways (Riyadh) and SaudiGulf Airlines (SGQ, Dammam) - make their début either later this year or early next year. The latter recently ferried its first two A320-200 (sl)s - HZ-SGA (cn 6455) and HZ-SGB (cn 6474) - to Lourdes/Tarbes for pre-delivery storage.
In February, the head of the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Sulaiman Al Hamdan, blamed delays in the airlines' launches on them failing to meet the kingdom’s regulatory requirements needed to gain their respective Air Operators Certificates (AOC).
