FJET.L Share News (FJET)

(ShareCast News) - Budget Airline fastjet has reached a deal to buy its first plane, after agreeing to purchase an Airbus A319 aircraft.The Africa-focused carrier has so far been leasing aircrafts, but it announced on Wednesday that its newly-acquired aircraft was expected to be operational by the end of next month and the group indicated it will be part of its Zambia fleet.The airline added that a fourth Airbus A319 would be introduced between Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, after the company increased the number of flights on the route from two to four per week."Following our recent announcement of the fourth and fifth aircraft joining our fleet, the addition of this owned aircraft by the end of September will see the fleet double in size to six once each of these aircraft are operational," said group chief executive Ed Winter."Each additional aircraft is able to make up to 1,000 more seats per day available to Fastjet's customers.The airline said that, based on the 75% load factors it was currently projecting, each aircraft in the fleet is projected to carry approximately 275,000 passengers per year.Earlier this month, the group said it had carried a record number of passengers during July, after adding flights to its Tanzanian routes and introducing flights to Malawi.Fasttjet carried 71,763 passengers last month, a 36% year-on-year increase, while the load factor, which measures how many seats are filled on an aircraft, was 72%.Fastjet shares were up 3.40% to 97.19p at 1117 BST on Wednesday.