Jazeera Airways to take delivery of 4 brand new Airbus A320s

Jazeera Airways Group has announced that it will receive four brand new Airbus A320s between 2012 and end of 2014 as part of the airline's fleet modernisation programme.

Chairman Marwan Boodai said, “Jazeera Airways have one of the Middle East’ youngest fleet which is a core component of our customer offering. Our target is to phase out aircraft that have more than 6 years of operation, and we have already begun phasing out aircraft as part of this programme.”

The announcement comes after the airline revised the order it placed for A320s in 2007 from 40 aircraft to 15 aircraft.

Boodai said, “The decision to resize our fleet is the right decision for Jazeera Airways at the time being, given the overcapacity we’ve seen in the market in 2009 and 2010 when we saw close to half of the seats offered by our peers on the routes we operated were being flown empty. However, we might revisit this decision in the future as Airbus introduces new A320 models to the market”.

“The desicion to adjust the short-term fleet size was part of an internal business enhancement plan called the ‘Turn-Around Plan’ that began rolling out in May 2010. Adjusting the fleet size was one of the objectives of the plan. Since then, our financial performance has beaten analyst expectations for every quarter.

Boodai added: “As we look forward to announce a good first quarter 2011, we thank our most valued partner Airbus for their continued support for the airline since 2005, and look forward to their continued support for years to come.”