LaudaMotion (Vienna) has announced it would double its A320 Family fleet to eighteen units ahead of Summer 2019. The carrier has also confirmed that Ryanair completed the acquisition of a 75% stake in August.
LaudaMotion currently operates five A320-200s and four A321-200s leased from Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International). The aircraft are subject to legal proceedings as the German group is trying to terminate the leasing contract and reclaim the A320 family aircraft.
Short of going into details about the nine further Airbus narrowbodies slated for induction in 2019, the leisure specialist said it already firmed the delivery dates for these units.
"These nine additional 2019 Airbus deliveries ensure that LaudaMotion will grow again by at least 20% in 2019 to 5 million guests per annum," CEO Andreas Gruber said.
Currently, LaudaMotion also wet-leases ten B737-800s from its parent Ryanair.
The Irish LCC previously said it would try to leverage LaudaMotion's A320 fleet in order to diversify the group's fleet. Ryanair itself operates 443 B737-800s and a single B737-700, while its leisure unit Ryanair Sun (Warsaw Modlin) operates a single B737-800 on its Polish Air Operator's Certificate (AOC).
