Yemen Airways has signed a $129 million deal with the International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) to lease three Boeing (BA) 737-800s, a senior airline official said on Sunday, quoted by Reuters.
Yemen Airways chairman Abdul-Khalek Al Qadi told Reuters that the eight-year contract, signed last week, would go into effect once deliveries started in April 2002.
An airline official said last month Yemen Airways was holding talks with US aircraft-maker Boeing and Europe's Airbus Industrie to purchase two planes.
Marketing manager Nabil Hassan Al Fakih was quoted as saying discussions were over the A320 and the B737-800 aircraft. He said the planes would replace the current Boeing 727s in service.
Yemen Airways has a fleet of 15 passenger aircraft which includes four Airbus 310s, four Boeing 727-200s, three Boeing 737-200s. It also has two freighters, an IL-76 and an AN-12.
ILFC is the aircraft leasing arm of American International Group Inc (AIG).
According to the airline’s website, in the last six months, Yemenia achieved 100 percent in terms of dispatch and operational reliability, while for the last twelve months it was "only" 99.4 percent – Albawaba.com
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