Afriqiyah Airways Orders A320s, A330s

At this week's Farnborough International Air Show, Airbus announced that Libya's Afriqiyah Airways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the acquisition of six A320 and three A319 airliners, as well as an option on five more of that family. Afriqiyah also ordered A330-200s, plus three options.

This acquisition is part of the long-term expansion strategy for the Libyan airline, who began activities in December 2001. Perhaps most importantly, however, it marks the first significant order for new commercial aircraft from Libya since 1978.

The new A320s and A319s will be put into service on Afriqiyah's international network, covering routes from its base at Tripoli to 17 destinations in North-, West- and Central Africa and the Middle East, as well as to European destinations such as Paris, Brussels, Geneva, London, Rome and Amsterdam. Afriqiyah's A319s will carry 124 passengers, while the A320 will seat 150 in two class configurations.

The A330s will serve the long haul operations on routes to Southern Africa, Asia and Europe and will have a three-class configuration with 253 seats.

"With the excellent record of the A320 Family as well as the A330 in terms of great economics and efficiency, the acquisition of these Airbus aircraft was a natural choice," said Captain Sabri, CEO of the Afriqiyah Airways. "These aircraft provide us with the full advantage of commonality and perfectly fulfill our expectations in terms of passenger comfort and optimized operational costs, and are the ideal investment to further strengthen our market position.

"Furthermore, the A330-200 is the ideal medium capacity long range airliner for our type of operations."

In addition to the aircraft, Airbus will also create a pilot and maintenance training center for Afriqiyah, as well as a maintenance base at its headquarters in Tripoli.

Firm orders for the Airbus A320 Family now stand at more than 4,300 aircraft. The Airbus A320 Family is in service with more than 200 customers and operators worldwide.

Airbus reports over 1,000 A330/A340/A350 Family aircraft have been ordered to date by over 70 customers.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.afriqiyah.aero