Dubai – Mubasher: Air Arabia has placed a landmark order of 120 Airbus A320 family aircraft with a total value exceeding $14 billion, tripling the firm's fleet while strengthening its global expansion plans.

Scheduled to be delivered in 2024, the new orders include 73 A320neo, 27 A321neo and 20 A321XLR airplanes that will further boost Air Arabia to meet its growth goals, said a press release on Tuesday.  

The Sharjah-based firm has not yet specified the engines to be installed on its new fleet.

The new order was announced during Dubai Airshow 2019 following a signing ceremony attended by Air Arabia’s chairman, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani, and Airbus’ CEO, Guillaume Faury.

Commenting on the occasion, group CEO of Air Arabia, Al Ali said, “Air Arabia’s fleet growth strategy has always been driven by commercial demand and we are glad to announce today one of the region’s largest single-aisle orders with Airbus to support our growth plans. This new milestone underpins not only our solid financial fundamentals but also the strength of our multi-hub growth strategy that we have adopted over the years while remaining focused on efficiency, performance and passenger experience.”

Meanwhile, Airbus’ chief commercial officer, Christian Scherer, highlighted that the new contract will allow the airline to tap into new markets.

It is worth noting that Air Arabia is the Middle East’s first airline firm to operate the A321neo-LR with three aircraft currently in service along with three others scheduled to be delivered in 2020.