Saudi Arabian budget airline flynas, which is backed by billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, is planning to float on Saudi Arabia’s bourse, the kingdom’s markets regulator.
The move marks a significant step for the airline as it seeks to expand its presence and attract new investors in the thriving aviation sector.
The nearly twenty-year-old company is going ahead with plans to sell a 30 percent stake, according to a statement by the Saudi capital markets authority, joining a raft of companies that have flocked to Gulf bourses in recent years.
The flynas prospectus will be published prior to the start of the subscription period, the statement added.
The carrier is set to debut after a years-long boom in the airline industry following the COVID-19 pandemic, and as Saudi Arabia has made tourism key to its domestic economic agenda.
The listing would be only the third by a Gulf airline after the United Arab Emirates’ Air Arabia and Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways, and the first in nearly two decades.
Launched as Nas Air in 2007, flynas serves over 70 destinations with more than 60 Airbus A320 and A330 jets. The airline is targeting a fleet of 160 aircraft by 2030.
Among its shareholders are Kingdom Holding, the Saudi Arabian investment company founded by Prince Alwaleed, who was once the country’s best-known international investor, buying up holdings in companies like Citigroup, Twitter, and Four Seasons.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF sovereign wealth fund bought around 17 percent of Kingdom Holding in 2022. Saudi Arabia is spending billions of dollars overhauling its economy to create new industries and jobs and develop a vibrant private sector to reduce the country’s dependence on oil rents.
