Air Arabia To Take Its First A321XLRs In 2027

Air Arabia has been leasing additional capacity while waiting for the 120 Airbus A320 family aircraft that it has on order, with initial neo deliveries now anticipated in the second half of 2025, followed by A321XLRs from 2027.

Today Air Arabia operates a fleet of around 85 Airbus A320ceos, A321ceos and A321LRs across its various airline brands, which include Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Air Arabia Egypt, Air Arabia Maroc and Fly Jinnah. The LCC group has enough aircraft on order to more than double its fleet over the coming years.

Speaking at Routes World in Bahrain, Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali said the 120 aircraft have not begun to arrive yet, because of supply chain and reliability issues. “We've been leasing quite a lot of aeroplanes from the market to grow the business,” he said, without giving any further details about the leases.

However, he noted that the slipped timeline for the neo order was partly at Air Arabia’s request.

“We decided to delay [the neo deliveries] until late 2024. The reason for that is we're waiting for the next generation of the [CFM LEAP] engines that will probably kick-off this year, or early next year. There has been some delay, which will probably mean our first delivery will be in the second half of 2025.”

Meanwhile, the A321XLRs are scheduled to begin delivering in 2027. “We don't normally race to be the first people to operate an airplane. I’d rather have another airline try and test it and, if they work well, then we get to use them,” Ali said.

Ali said the XLRs will give Air Arabia 8.5 hours’ range, which is technically enough to operate transatlantic flights, but he stressed this is not part of the group’s plans. Instead, Air Arabia will extend its operations in the Middle East and further afield from Morocco, with potential to reach South Africa.

“In Morocco, we will expect to come to the Middle East and further into Russia, and so on,” he said. “From here [the Middle East], it will take us much farther east, almost into South Africa and anywhere in Europe. Egypt has a lot of potential that we have not tapped yet.”

Pakistan-based Fly Jinnah, which launched operations two years ago, is Air Arabia’s newest brand. Ali said the venture has been “extremely successful” and load factors are performing well, demonstrating that the airline does not have to carry the Air Arabia brand.

“We're not going into where everybody is, which is Karachi,” Ali said. “We are developing more from Islamabad and the north. Again, we see huge potential, as we develop the business.”