Flynas eyes 14% growth with delivery of new jets in 2019: CEO

Saudi Arabia's low-cost carrier Flynas is targeting increase in passenger numbers by 14 percent this year, as it is set to receive delivery of four new A320neo jets, according to its chief executive officer.

"We already have received two A320neo aircraft and we are about to receive four more this year and another nine aircraft next year. So within two years, about 50 percent of our fleet will be of new aircraft, which will enable us to reach new destinations that we cannot reach right now," Bander Almohanna told Argaam in an exclusive interview at the Arabian Travel Market.

In 2017, the budget airline had placed an order with Airbus for 80 A320neo narrow-body jets, worth $8.6 billion, with deliveries scheduled to take place from 2018 to 2026. Last year, Flynas carried around 6.6 million passengers on 60,000 domestic and international flights during 2018.

After launching flights to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Batumi, Georgia this year,  the airline is set to launch new routes to India. It will fly six times a week to New Delhi and Hyderabad.

"Our aircraft has a specific range and so we are flying and targeting destination with the flying range of five hours," Almohanna said.

Asked when Flynas is planning to close a wide-body aircraft deal, the CEO said they were still in negotiations with Airbus and Boeing.

"Our focus is on what we did before which is on efficiency, high density, etc. and to reach a market that we are not serving now."

While the airline is planning to hike fares as oil prices rise, Almohanna said it had absorbed value-added tax (VAT), which was to be borne by the passengers.

"Like all industry, it is not that easy to pass all those taxes to the consumer. When you see the elasticity of demand in the airline industry is so high, any increase in the price will immediately affect the demand," he added.

Flynas CEO sees promising growth in the Kingdom's aviation sector, expecting the market to increase on average by 6.5 percent for the next five years.

"The market grew by an average of 8 percent every year for the past five years, and we expect the growth in the market to continue for the next five years," he said.

Almohanna, however, declined to comment on the airline's plan for an initial public offering.

Write to Parag Deulgaonkar at parag.d@argaamplus.com