By Flyadeal, budget airline of Saudi Arabia will budget airline after canceling its provisional order of $5.9 billion with Boeing for its troubled 737 Max jets.
In place of it, the airline has ordered 30 Airbus A320neo planes for worth $5.5 billion marking one of the first carriers to fully change to Boeing’s French opponent because of the continuous problems with the Max.
On Sunday, Flyadeal announced, ‘This order will effect in flyadeal operating an all-Airbus A320 fleet in coming time’.
In December the airline cautiously committed to buying Boeing’s 737 Max- a deal it reviewed after two deadly crashes in which 346 people killed and left the jet grounded all across the world.
In an emailed statement Boeing said, ‘Boeing is proud of its seven-decade extensive partnership with aviation industry of Saudi Arabia and we wish the flyadeal team good as it builds out its operations. Our team continues to focusing on securely returning the 737 Max to service as well as resuming deliveries of MAX airplanes’.
Boeing has frozen its Max deliveries for some months after the crashes and now hopes to submit a fix to the regulators for review in the month of September. By the end of the year, that timeline would get the planes back in the air.
Apart from this, if the Max will not be fixed soon, then the other Middle Eastern airlines have warned of switching to Airbus. Last month, Oman Air said that it would hold a discussion with Airbus if Boeing did not give support as well as a recovery plan for Max. Flydubai, Emirati carrier in April said it can order A320neos as in place of the Max jets.
Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, is poised to overtake Boeing this year as the largest plane maker in the world as the United States company cuts 737 production volume.
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