By Ahmed Hagagy
KUWAIT, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways JAZK.KW is in talks to buy 30 Airbus AIR.PA A320neo or Boeing BA.N 737 MAX jets in a deal worth up to $2 billion, the airline’s chairman said on Monday.
Marwan Boodai told Reuters the budget carrier expected to place the long-considered aircraft order by the end of March.
The airline would seek to raise debt to finance part of the purchases, with the remaining to be funded from the company’s own cash reserves, which currently stand at 41 million Kuwaiti dinars ($136 million), he said.
The disclosure of jet order talks comes just two weeks before the start of the five day Dubai Airshow, which will be this year’s biggest aerospace trade show and a spectacle for commercial and military contracts worth billions of dollars.
Jazeera, majority owned by Boodai, has for many years mulled an aircraft order to expand and replace its fleet of leased narrow-body Airbus jets, though never placed an order.
It currently operates a fleet of 17 Airbus A320 jets.
The airline on Monday reported a third-quarter net profit of 11.8 million dinar ($39.15 million), its first quarterly profit in two years, according to Refinitiv data.
“We are positive that travel will return stronger to reach 2019 operational performance very soon … We now believe the worst is behind us,” Boodai said in a statement.
($1 = 0.3014 Kuwaiti dinars)
(Reporting by Ahmed Hagagy; Writing by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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