Jazeera Airways becomes new Airbus A320 customer

It plans to begin services in February 2005 with two leased Airbus A320s, serving key business and leisure destinations throughout the Middle East. Initial destinations include Dubai, Bahrain, Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Egypt, with further expansion planned to include cities in the Indian subcontinent. Deliveries of the ordered aircraft will begin in October 2005.

Each of Jazeera's A320s will seat 165 passengers in a single-class layout. A choice of engines has yet to be made.

"Jazeera Airways will deliver value for money products and services, and our passengers will enjoy the superb reliability and comfort that the Airbus A320 will offer," says Jazeera Airways Chairman and CEO, Marwan Boodai.

Airbus' A320 Family is the most successful aircraft of all time in the short-to-medium haul single-aisle market, offering capacities that range from the 107-seat A318 up to the 185-seat A321. Consistently the leader in independent passenger surveys, the Airbus A320 Family has become the preferred choice of low-cost as well as established carriers, offering the widest and most spacious cabin in its class.

"With its young and modern design, the Airbus A320 is an aircraft that continues to win new customers from very different market-segments, as this order from one of the region's newest airlines, Jazeera Airways, demonstrates, " says Airbus President and CEO Noël Forgeard. "And as part of the world's most modern airliner family, the A320 also offers unmatched commonality with all the other Airbus passenger aircraft that we make today," he adds.

More than 3,200 A320 Family aircraft have been ordered and there are over 180 customers and operators worldwide, making them the most widespread aircraft in the Airbus product range.

Airbus is an EADS joint company with BAE Systems.