The beginning of the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow was mostly quiet for Airbus. The company announced a few deals, but they were generally small or confirmation of prior commitments, while Boeing scored a few decent wins. On the final day, as has been its wont recently, Airbus came out with its biggest announcement: A 90 aircraft MoU with Saudi Arabia’s flynas, 75 A320neo-family planes and 15 A330-900s. (Flynas CCO Stefan Madiera described it as a 160 aircraft deal on LinkedIn, split 130/30; presumably the difference is around including options or not.)
The deal extends an already strong relationship, with 60 Airbus aircraft in service for the airline currently, mostly A320neos. Five leased A330-300s are also part of the operations today.
Speaking to the deal, Bander Almohanna, CEO and Managing Director of flynas, described “exceptional operational performance and environmental benefits,” from the A320neo family, “allowing us to offer unique, low-cost travel experiences.” The widebodies, he added, “will enhance our long-haul capabilities with its advanced technology and efficiency while supporting our growth plans and Saudi Arabia’s pilgrim program.”
Knowing that the pilgrim program is a key factor in the order also helps to explain the configuration flynas intends to put on the A330-900s. The release indicates a “two-class configuration, accommodating up to 400 passengers.” That almost certainly means a 3-3-3 layout in the back, among other things, to fit all the seats inside.
And, while 400 is a large number of seats for the A330-900 aircraft, it is not the most dense configuration flying, nor even the most flynas has moved on the type. Cebu Pacific operates its A339s with 459 seats on board, in a single-class configuration. Lion Air flies with 436, also in a single-cabin layout. Flynas has leased Lion Air planes in that configuration for pilgrimage flights in the past. Sunclass flies up to 385 seats on its A339s.
The highest capacity two-class configuration appears to be Garuda Indonesia/Citilink’s layout, with 42 premium economy seats and 323 in coach. Presumably flynas will have a smaller premium cabin to help it top that number.
More news from the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow
- Boeing scores orders, customer rebuke at Farnborough’s day one
- Lufthansa Technik adds 787 retrofit capacity
- Window seats win with Qatar Airways’ next gen Qsuites
- Airbus, flynas deliver largest order for Farnborough 2024
- Turkish Airlines unveils Crystal Suite business class cabin
- Turkish plans free inflight Wi-Fi
- Embraer plans satellite connectivity for E175s
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