Saudi Low-Cost Carrier Flynas Launches IPO, But Israel-Iran Conflict Weighs on Market
Flynas, Saudi Arabia's budget carrier, made its IPO debut Wednesday, but growing tensions between Israel and Iran weighed on regional markets and local airline stocks.
Flynas had priced its offering at 80 riyals ($21.38) a share, giving the low-cost airline a valuation of 13.7 billion riyals ($3.7 billion).
The shares initially dropped as much as 13% Wednesday and trading was briefly halted twice within the first 20 minutes of the session. By midday, shares were down but had recovered much of the loss.
"Given how the situation changed this week with escalating geopolitical crisis and closure of air space and regional flight disruption, it may have been prudent to delay the listing until things settled," wrote Nishit Lakhotia, head of research at Bahrain's Sico Bank, on LinkedIn.
The UAE's Air Arabia is down more than 3% this week, while Kuwait's Jazeera Airways tumbled as much as 4.2% on Wednesday, following its worst drop since 2020 earlier in the week.
Despite the dip, the Flynas IPO was the largest in the Middle East so far this year and marked the first Gulf airline to go public in nearly two decades after Air Arabia in 2007.
The IPO and Flynas Expansion
The total size of the IPO is $1.1 billion, the company said when it announced the IPO price, and proceeds will be used to support fleet expansion, extend its network, and fund general corporate activities.
In February, Flynas announced it would be receiving more than 100 Airbus aircraft over the next five years, with the expected growth of its fleet to more than 160 aircraft by the end of 2030. It has orders for 280 aircraft worth over 161 billion Riyals ($42.9 billion).
In May, Flynas CEO Bander Al-Muhanna said the IPO would be "a strategic step that will accelerate the execution of our growth ambitions and solidify our position as the leading low-cost carrier for short- and medium-haul flights across the Middle East and North Africa by 2030."
Flynas connects more than 70 domestic and international destinations with more than 1,500 weekly flights. For the first nine months of last year, it served 10.9 million passengers, according to its IPO prospectus. The airline aims to reach 165 domestic and international destinations, in line with the country's Vision 2030.
Saudi Arabia will soon have four major airlines: Saudia, Flynas, Flyadeal, and Riyadh Air.
Saudia and Riyadh Air are long-haul national carriers, while Flynas and Flyadeal are budget, short- and medium-haul. Riyadh Air hasn't launched yet, but its first flight is expected by the end of the year and it targets 100 million passengers by 2030.
Saudia had 20 million passengers last year and Flyadeal had 7.9 million.
Currently, the Saudia routes between Riyadh and Dubai are especially popular as business people move between the two cities. During the Skift Travel Podcast, Almosafer CEO Muzzammil Ahussain said: 'Given the demand, Riyadh to Dubai is one of the most expensive and profitable routes in the world. Especially the business class, given the amount of trade between the two countries. The business travel going on… It's sometimes $4,000-$5,000 for a one-hour business class flight.'
He added: 'Investments in new airports, new airlines, [demand] is only going to increase.'
Ahussain said he's hoping for an Almosafer IPO in the next 12 to 18 months.
What am I looking at? The performance of airline sector stocks within the ST200. The index includes companies publicly traded across global markets including network carriers, low-cost carriers, and other related companies.
The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the financial performance of nearly 200 travel companies worth more than a trillion dollars into a single number. See more airlines sector financial performance.
Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
8 hours ago
- Business Insider
See inside a JetBlue Airbus A220, the versatile jet now running its longest route yet for the airline
Airbus exhibited a JetBlue A220 at June's Paris Air Show. The same month, JetBlue began its longest route using an A220 — between Boston and Vancouver. Vancouver and Boston are about 2,500 miles apart, and the flight can take up to six hours. JetBlue previously operated this route until last September using the larger Airbus A321. According to data from the aviation analytics firm Cirium, this is also the fifth-longest A220 route in the world. The title belongs to Air Baltic's 2,684-mile journey between Dubai and Latvia. A splash of colour and the airline's logo made boarding feel more welcoming than a barebones plane. Blue lighting throughout the cabin also added to the atmosphere on board. JetBlue says the custom mood lighting changes through the day. With a more spacious cabin than competing aircraft, the A220 is configured in a rare 2-3 layout. Cabins like this used to be more common on old airplanes like those made by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997. There are fewer than 100 Boeing 717s still in service, a jet which was originally known as the MD-95. Other than the A220, Russia's Superjet 100 is the only jet still being built with a 2-3 layout. And yet, the seats are still quite large. JetBlue says the A220 has the widest coach seats of any single-aisle aircraft, measuring 18 inches. Couples or solo travelers might also like the fact that there are fewer middle seats. The first four rows are dedicated to premium seats. In addition to up to seven inches of extra legroom, "EvenMore" comes with early boarding, free alcoholic drinks, and priority security at some airports. There are also another couple of rows by the overwing emergency exits, for a total of 30 premium seats. The relatively large cabin also means there's plenty of overhead bin space — with more improvements on the way. The coach seats offered fairly generous legroom. The pitch, which is the distance between the same spot on one seat and the one in front, is 32 inches. That's typically among the most you can find in economy. I was also impressed by JetBlue's in-flight entertainment system. JetBlue also offers free WiFi, and its A220s have USB-C, USB-A, and AC power for charging. It also has live TV on all of its planes, although this type has only 18 channels compared to over 100 on its A321s. Delta only has live TV on select planes, excluding its A220s. Two bathrooms at the rear were also more spacious than I expected. The A220 was first built by Bombardier, but Airbus bought the program for 1 Canadian dollar. Before it was the A220, it began as Bombardier's CSeries program, which launched in 2008. The plane entered service in 2016. It was already facing financial difficulties due to overspending, development delays, and stiff competition with the Boeing 737-700. Then, in 2017, Boeing accused Bombardier of unfairly trying to increase its market share by selling dozens to Delta for less than their production cost, a practice known as dumping. The US government then imposed duties totaling 292%. It said around 80% was due to the dumping petition and the rest due to subsidies by the Canadian government. Bombardier rejected the allegations at the time and said: "The magnitude of the proposed duty is absurd and divorced from the reality about the financing of multibillion-dollar aircraft programs." In October, Airbus paid 1 Canadian dollar to take a controlling stake in the program in 2017, renaming it the A220 a year later. It also agreed to build many of the planes at its production line in Mobile, Alabama. Since Donald Trump announced his tariff plan, trade deals with the UK, European Union, and Brazil have included exemptions for planes.
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Dubai chocolate desserts hit state fairs as a hot-ticket item
At the upcoming State Fair of Texas, confectioner Stephen El Gidi will offer up his own Dubai chocolate-inspired dessert — a base of rich Belgian chocolate and a pistachio spread layered like a sweet lasagna over cheesecake in a cup. It's definitely a departure from the typical corn dogs and cotton candy. From the West Coast to Middle America, dessert creators at state fairs are hawking their own confections based on Dubai chocolate, a milk chocolate shell filled with creamy pistachio, tahini and crispy kataifi, a Middle Eastern pastry. The offerings derive inspiration from the original Dubai Chocolate, a bar created in 2021 by Sarah Hamouda, the founder of Fix Dessert Chocolatier, an online confectionary shop in Dubai. The bar quickly went viral, with influencers touting its gooey, crunchy goodness and Hamouda saying she was selling 100 bars per minute. Now, Dubai chocolate-inspired desserts have hit the masses and are popping up at a handful of state fairs for the first time this year. The Minnesota State Fair will offer a Dubai chocolate strawberry cup in late August. Wisconsin just featured its version of the Dubai chocolate bar. And the Orange County Fair in Southern California debuted a Dubai chocolate brownie last month. In May, the L.A. County Fair also sold a Dubai chocolate strawberry cup. El Gidi, who owns Drizzle Cheesecakes based in a Dallas suburb, is originally from Libya and moved to the U.S. in 2021 in hopes of becoming a business owner. He said he aims to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 cups this year at the state fair. 'I became an entrepreneur because of my father, who is also a business owner. He inspired me to be my own boss,' El Gidi told NBC News. Stores like Trader Joe's, Costco and even mall kiosks have featured their own versions of the chocolate bars for prices of around $3.99 and up. There's even a Dubai chocolate pistachio shake at some Shake Shack locations featuring pistachio frozen custard with kataifi and a dark chocolate shell for $11.04. Currently, people in Dubai can order Hamouda's bar, which she calls 'Can't get knafeh of it,' from her online shop or through a delivery service. It costs a little over $18 per bar. Additionally, chocolate aficionados can find the bar at Dubai International Airport's duty-free store in Terminal 3. In May, product sales in the Confectionary category of Dubai Duty Free reached $20.2 million, up 81% thanks in part to Dubai chocolate, according to a press release from the company. The versions of Dubai chocolate people are buying in the U.S. are more a replication of the flavor profile than the real thing, says Kristie Hang, a food journalist based in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley. These products are more wallet-friendly, selling for around $15 at grocery stores, and they're made using standard ingredients like milk chocolate, strawberries and nut butters. True Dubai chocolate, Hang says, is an artisanal dessert that's made in small batches. 'The pistachios are imported from Turkey and the chocolate is special chocolate with edible gold,' she said. There's an element of luxury and craftsmanship to authentic Dubai chocolate, Hang added, noting a Dubai chocolate-covered strawberry confection would have only the finest, perfectly shaped strawberries dipped in high-quality Belgian or dark chocolate, paired with kataifi bits and pistachio cream from finely ground pistachios. 'It's definitely a mass fad at this point, but it's far removed from what the original Dubai chocolate was intended for, which was an exclusive luxury item. Now, it's being marketed as a very generic thing that anyone can get,' said Hang. Texas-based food reviewer Zain Mohammed said he's not a fan of the Dubai chocolate trend. Mohammed, who was born in Chicago, raised in Saudi Arabia and now reviews restaurants in Houston, said he thinks the proliferation of the dessert is glossing over the culture and the important role food plays in family. 'There's more to Dubai than just Dubai chocolate. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and the Arab culture is very family-oriented and Arab hospitality is very unmatched.' He said he's also worried about people benefiting from the trend without appreciating the culture. 'I believe that there is cultural appropriation because of the fact that so many people are doing it — they are latching onto the trend and then advertising it as their own.' Bianca Tamondong, a college student who tried the Dubai brownie dessert from the Mom's Bakeshoppe stand at the OC Fair, said she thought it was a winning combo. 'I've tried so many other Dubai chocolate desserts before, such as the actual chocolate bar, ice cream variations and Dubai chocolate-covered strawberries. Ten dollars honestly seemed like such a steal since many other Dubai chocolate desserts cost $15.' 'The pistachios balanced out the sweetness of the brownie perfectly,' she said. Confection connoisseur Dominic Palmieri sells a Dubai chocolate strawberry cup at the OC Fair. 'It has all the components of the Dubai chocolate. However, we're putting chocolate on top of the strawberries, and it's got silky cream chocolate that doesn't harden,' said Palmieri. It took more than three months to get enough pistachio cream for the fairs he's participating in due to a pistachio shortage and high demand for pistachio cream. He projects securing around 2,000 gallons of pistachio cream and over 10,000 pounds of raw chocolate this year. It was rare for anyone to find Dubai chocolate in 2024. 'You had to find it in specialty chocolate shops, sweet shops or different places that were doing dessert,' says Palmieri. Now, it's everywhere, he says.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Airbus Is About to Eclipse a Record That Boeing Held for Decades
(Bloomberg) -- In 1981, the year Airbus SE announced it would build a new single-aisle jetliner to take on Boeing Co., the 737 ruled the roost. The US-made narrowbody, already in use for more than a decade, had reshaped the airline industry by making shorter routes cheaper and more profitable to operate. By 1988, when Airbus began producing its upstart A320, Boeing had built a formidable lead by delivering some 1,500 of its cigar-shaped best-seller. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Festivals and Parades Are Canceled Amid US Immigration Anxiety A Photographer's Pipe Dream: Capturing New York's Vast Water System To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Five Years After Black Lives Matter, Brussels' Colonial Statues Remain It's taken the better part of four decades, but Airbus has finally caught up: The A320 series is poised to overtake its US competitor as the most-delivered commercial airliner in history, according to aviation consultancy Cirium. As of early August, Airbus had winnowed the gap to just 20 units, with 12,155 lifetime A320-family shipments, according to the data. That difference is likely to disappear as soon as next month. 'Did anyone back then expect it could become number one – and on such high production volumes?' Max Kingsley-Jones, head of advisory at Cirium Ascend, wrote of the A320 in a recent social-media post. 'I certainly didn't, and nor probably did Airbus.' The A320's success mirrors the European planemaker's decades-long rise from fledgling planemaker to serious contender, and finally Boeing's better. By the early 2000s, annual deliveries of the A320 and its derivatives had surpassed the 737 family; total orders eclipsed the Boeing jet in 2019. But the 737 stubbornly remained the most-delivered commercial aircraft of all time. At the outset, Airbus faced an uphill battle. The European planemaker, an assemblage of aerospace manufacturers formed in 1970 with backing from European governments, didn't yet offer a full aircraft lineup. Infighting hindered everything from product planning to manufacturing, and leadership decisions had to finely balance French and German commercial and political interests. Yet it was clear even then that Airbus needed a presence in the narrowbody segment to firmly establish itself as Boeing's top rival. Those aircraft are by far the most widely flown category in commercial aviation, typically connecting city pairs on shorter routes. Higher fuel costs and the deregulation of the US aviation industry in the late 1970s had given the European planemaker an opening with American airline executives, who clamored for an all-new single-aisle, according to a history of Airbus written by journalist Nicola Clark. To set the A320 apart, Airbus took some risks. It selected digital fly-by-wire controls that saved weight over traditional hydraulic systems, and gave pilots a side-stick at their right or left hand instead of a centrally mounted yoke. The aircraft also sat higher off the ground than the 737 and came with a choice of two engines, giving customers greater flexibility. Airbus's gamble paid off. Today, the A320 and 737 make up nearly half of the global passenger jet fleet in service. And the A320's success contrasts with strategic blunders like the A380 behemoth that proved short-lived because airlines couldn't profitably operate the giant plane. Boeing maintained that smaller, nimbler planes like the 787 Dreamliner would have an edge — a prediction that proved right. Yet the longtime dominance of the two narrowbody aircraft raises questions about the vitality of a duopoly system that favors stability over innovation. Both airplane makers have repeatedly opted for incremental changes that squeeze efficiencies out of their top-selling models, rather than going the more expensive route of designing a replacement aircraft from scratch. Airbus was first to introduce new engines to its A320, turning the neo variant into a huge hit with airlines seeking to cut their fuel bill. Under pressure, Boeing followed, but its approach proved calamitous. The US planemaker came up with the 737 Max, strapping more powerful engines onto the aircraft's aging, low-slung frame. It installed an automated flight-stabilizing feature called MCAS to help manage the higher thrust and balance out the plane. Regulators later found MCAS contributed to two deadly 737 Max crashes that led to a global grounding of the jet for 20 months, starting in 2019. More recently, Airbus has been bedeviled by issues with the fuel-efficient engines that power the A320neo. High-tech coatings that allow its Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans to run at hotter temperatures have shown flaws, forcing airline customers to send aircraft in for extra maintenance, backing up repair shops and grounding hundreds of jets waiting for inspection and repair. With both narrowbody families near the end of their evolutionary timeline, analysts and investors have begun asking about what's next. China, for its part, is seeking to muscle into the market with its Comac C919 model that's begun operating in the country, but hasn't so far been certified to fly in Europe or the US. Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg said in July that the company is working internally toward a next-generation plane, but is waiting for engine technology and other factors to fall into place, including restoring cash flow after years of setbacks. 'That's not today and probably not tomorrow,' he said on a July 29 call. Airbus's healthier finances give it more flexibility to explore design leaps. CEO Guillaume Faury toyed with rolling out a hydrogen-powered aircraft — potentially with a radical 'flying wing' design — in the mid-2030s but has since pushed back the effort to focus on a conventional A320 successor. The Toulouse, France-based company is considering an open-rotor engine that would save fuel through its architecture rather than the current jet turbines that push the limits of physics to eke out gains. Speaking at the Paris Air Show in June, Faury called the A320 'quite an old platform' and affirmed plans to launch a successor by the end of this decade, with service entry in the mid-2030s. 'I have a lot of focus on preparing that next-generation of single aisle,' Faury said. 'We are very steady and very committed to this.' --With assistance from Jinshan Hong. What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan How Syrian Immigrants Are Boosting Germany's Economy Twitter's Ex-CEO Is Moving Past His Elon Musk Drama and Starting an AI Company ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
