Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) has signed a firm agreement with the Al Qahtani Aviation Company for sixteen CS300 aircraft with options for an additional ten of the type. The aircraft will be operated by the firm's new Saudi start-up, SaudiGulf Airlines (SGQ, Dammam). Based on the list price of the aircraft, the firm order for the 16 CS300 aircraft is valued at approximately USD1.21billion though should all ten options be exercised, the value of the contract would increase to USD1.99billion. Delivery of the firstr CS300s is expected between the end of 2015 and the start of 2016, Samer al-Magali, president of the Abel Hadi al-Qahtani Group, owner of Saudi Gulf Air, said at the Bahrain Air Show. Al Qahtani Aviation Company and Saudi Gulf Airlines are both owned by Saudi Abdel Hadi Abdullah Al-Qahtani & Sons Group of Companies (Tariq Al-Qahtani & Bros.). Dammam-based Saudi Gulf is expected to start operating later this year or early 2015 Magali told reporters at the Air Show. Meanwhile, Bloomberg newswire says Saudi Gulf's rival, Al Maha Airways (Riyadh), is eyeing a fleet of fifty A320-200s sourced via parent, Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International). Al Maha will focus on domestic and regional flights with 10 aircraft following its launch in the third quarter of this year. Thereafter, between ten and fifteen aircraft will be added each year. “Keeping in mind that we have around 350 aircraft on order, we don’t have to shop for anything,” QR CEO Akbar Al Baker told the news service. “The only thing is that in the interim we may have to lease airplanes until we get our brand new aircraft delivered.” Al Maha, which will have the same logo as Qatar Airways, only in green to match the colors of Saudi Arabia, will start with main domestic cities including Riyadh and Jeddah International, using wide-body aircraft to absorb expected demand.