In an announcement last Monday, Air Arabia said that it had signed a US$350 million financing deal from two Gulf Cooperation Council banks, namely the Qatar National Bank (QNB Group) and Commercial Bank International (CBI).
The said loan financing deal is for the purpose of funding the acquisition of ten new aircraft, namely the Airbus A320. This new order comes after a previous order of 44 A320s that the budget carrier had already made with Airbus back in 2007.
This comes after the Sharjah based budget airline, the largest low cost carrier in the region, said that it was planning to raise between US$400 million and US$450 million in bank financing in order to pay for the ordered aircraft.
According to Adel Ali, Air Arabia's CEO, "We will be getting deliveries till the end of 2015." He added that the carrier would need more planes to expand its routes aside from the ones needing replacement for those that have been in service for the last three years.
No terms of the loan facility were made public. Air Arabia though had posted a 20% increase in first quarter net profit.
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