Summary
- Middle Eastern carrier flynas has added five new Airbus A320neos to its fleet, despite supply chain disruptions and parts shortages.
- The airline aims to expand its network to 165 destinations in the coming years as part of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to reach 330 million passengers by 2030.
- The addition of new aircraft allows flynas to open more routes, including the recent launch of a service between Jeddah and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Despite all the bad news around supply chain disruptions and parts shortages, Middle Eastern carrier flynas has managed to add five new Airbus A320neos to its fleet in the last month. The airline has received eleven of the nineteen A320neos it expects to add this year and is finding new routes to fly them on, such as the Jeddah to Bishkek service it launched this week.
Big ambitions for the A320neos
In the last two years, flynas has more than doubled its fleet to 56 Airbus aircraft, which connect more than 70 domestic and international destinations on around 1,500 weekly flights. Since its launch in 2007, the low-cost carrier has carried more than 60 million passengers and in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, flynas aims to expand its network to 165 destinations in coming years.
Photo: flynas
The expansion plan, titled “We Connect the World with KSA,” is part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to reach 330 million passengers and connect to more than 250 international destinations by 2030. With an all-Airbus fleet of 56 aircraft, flynas now has 39 A320neos with an average age of less than two years, with around 80 more to be delivered, including 10 A321XLRs.
CEO and Managing Director of flynas, Bander Almohanna, said the expansion aligns with its objectives of serving pilgrims to streamline access to the two holy mosques and the national strategy of linking the world with the Kingdom. He added:
“The rise of our fleet will enable us to increase our expansion plans in the current year through the launch of new domestic and international destinations, and in particular, the company, over the next weeks, will receive eight new planes as part of the batch scheduled for delivery in 2023. Hence, the company proceeds to bolster its position as the largest low-cost carrier in the Middle East and one of the top five airlines in the world.”
More expansion this week
The arrival of so many new Airbus A320neos allows flynas to open more routes, such as the one launched this week between Jeddah and Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. The expansion into Central Asia fits with the objectives of the Pilgrim Experience Program, which aims to make access to the holy mosques easier and is a promising growth opportunity for flynas.
Photo: flynas
According to Flightradar24.com, the first flight departed on Tuesday from Jeddah King Abdulaziz International (JED) at 02:48 and, after a 4:56 hour flight, landed in Kyrgyzstan at 10:45. The Airbus A320neo, registration HZ-NS35 and MSN 10431 departed Bishkek Manas International (FRU) as flight XY698 at 12:12 and landed in Jeddah at 14:44.
Since then, this A320neo has returned to a variety of domestic and international routes, operating flights from Jeddah to destinations including Dubai (DXB), Karachi (KHI), Riyadh (RUH) and Giza Sphinx International (SPX). With new aircraft arriving regularly flynas is launching a new operations base at Madinah Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport (MED) by the end of the year, when it will be the only airline with four operations bases across Saudi Arabia.