Air Arabia (G9, Sharjah) Chief Executive Officer Adel Ali has alluded to the possible cancellation of a Letter of Intent with Bombardier Aerospace, signed by Petra Airlines (Amman Queen Alia) in 2014 for four A220-100 and 300 aircraft.
Air Arabia acquired a 49% stake in the Jordanian carrier in 2014 before rebranding it as Air Arabia Jordan (Amman Queen Alia).
“Petra as an airline was finished a long time ago. That’s history. Everything that was there is gone,” Ali told Reuters in an interview last week.
Despite this tentative order renunciation, Ali has, in the past, touted the CSeries as a potential acquisition for its Air Arabia Maroc (3O, Casablanca Mohamed V) and Air Arabia Egypt (E5, Alexandria Borg el Arab) units.
“There are very positive vibes coming out,” he told Arabian Aerospace in August last year. “The CSeries could be a good size for some of our thin routes, some of our development routes … domestic flights in Morocco, some of the Egyptian routes. They could do quite a lot of routes in the region." However, he did voice concern about the type's lack of proven reliability in the Middle East’s “harsh weather climate”.
The UAE-based budget carrier is currently in the process of finalizing a growth plan and is currently in touch with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and Boeing (BOE, Washington National) over a possible order for up to 100 narrowbody jets. According to Ali, the acquisition does not necessarily have to be a purchase order but could even come through leasing.
At present, Air Arabia operates an all-Airbus fleet of thirty-seven A320-200s with Air Arabia Egypt (E5, Alexandria Borg el Arab) operating two, Air Arabia Jordan (Amman Queen Alia) operating two, and Air Arabia Maroc eight. The LCC group will take delivery of three more A320ceo in 2018 and six in 2019. Then, between January and October 2019, it will add six A321neo(LR)s on lease from Air Lease Corporation.
