Safi Airways to buy three new aircraft

Afghanistan's privately-owned Safi Airways plans to buy three narrow-bodied aircraft next year in order to operate on new international routes, a senior company executive told Gulf News late on Monday. "Next year, we are going to purchase three aircraft, either Airbus A320s, or Airbus A321s. We plan to start Kabul-Bahrain-Kabul flights from February and would start flying to Kathmandu from May," said Lloyd Carswell, Safi Airways chief commercial officer. He said there also are plans to increase the number of flights to seven per week on the Kabul-Delhi route and to operate three flights a week to Mumbai. "There has been no firm decision so far on starting flights to Tehran," said Carswell. Article continues below At a function here yesterday, Safi Airways announced it will start flights between Kabul and Abu Dhabi beginning January 5. "The new route will be flown four times a week on Safi Airways' newly acquired Airbus-A320, which has 12 business and 132 economy class seats. "This new air link will contribute to the development of Safi Airways," said Hamid Safi, chief executive officer, while announcing that Dnata has been appointed as the airline's sales agent for Abu Dhabi. Carswell said Safi Airways' current fleet comprises two Airbus A320s, one Boeing 767 and two Boeing 737s. "The average fleet age is about 14 years. We have a very high aircraft utilisation rate. On average, we operate 15 hours a day," he said. Carswell said it would take five to six months for the airline to break even on the Kabul-Abu Dhabi route. Safi Airways currently operates two flights a day on the Kabul-Dubai route from Dubai International Airport's Terminal 1.