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Air Arabia, a low-cost airline, has struck a deal with the European aircraft maker Airbus to buy 10 additional Airbus A320 aircraft.

Published: 17 Nov 2008

Air Arabia, a low-cost airline, has struck a deal with the European aircraft maker Airbus to buy 10 additional Airbus A320 aircraft.

The Middle East's biggest budget airline did not say how much it will pay for the aircraft. Airbus lists the A320 at an average price of $76.9 million apiece, although buyers often negotiate discounts for bulk orders.

The five-year-old Air Arabia is carrying out an expansion strategy to capitalise on the potential in North Africa and Southern Europe.

It will launch a new airline named Air Arabia Maroc in early 2009 from its second hub in Casablanca, the largest city of North Africa's Morocco.

"Following Air Arabia's expansion plans and the new hub in Morocco, expanding the fleet size is certainly a need. The Airbus A320 aircraft has an outstanding success record throughout the world and is ideal for our needs and those of our customers," the airline's chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani said in a statement.

This is the second order of Airbus A320 aircraft by Air Arabia after it signed an agreement with Airbus to buy 34 Airbus A320s at the end of 2007. Air Arabia currently operates 16 (leased and owned) A320s and serves a network of 44 destinations across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and East Europe.