While Saudi Arabian budget operator Flyadeal has just announced a step-change order by signing for 51 Airbus A321neos, new chief executive Steven Greenway is considering a future move for the carrier into low-cost, long-haul operations.
Fast-growing Flyadeal currently has a fleet of 32 Airbus A320s – a mix of Neos and Ceos – and has just signed an order for 51 more Airbus narrowbodies including 39 larger A321neos as part of Saudia’s recent comitment for 105 aircraft.
While the addition of A321neos from 2026 marks an upgauge that will help on unit costs and to add capacity on routes into more congested airports, Greenway also says long-haul operations are under consideration.
”For us we are certainly thinking about it,” he tells FlightGlobal during an interview on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Dubai.
Greenway, who took the helm of Flyadeal at the start of the year, has experience of the low-cost, long-haul model, having been head of commercial when Singapore Airlines unit Scoot was launched more than a decade ago.
”I would argue long-haul, low-cost doesn’t work everywhere,” Greenway says. ”It works on selected markets. We’ve got a lot of high-volume, low-yield markets; southeast Asian workers, Filipinos coming over to work in the region; pilgrims again from southeast Asia and the sub-continent. So it blends it well. You’ve got the volume and then you’ve the low-yield. In theory it should work quite well.
”So we are looking at it, we are seriously looking at it, and I think it’s something we’ll make a decision on in the next year or so,” he says. “But we also have a lot of aircraft to digest already with our big order, so where does that fit in?”
