Dubai-based low cost airline flydubai has secured a US$117.5mn 12-year loan from boutique funding firm Private Export Funding Corp (Pefco) to finance export s of Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

US Export-Import Bank (US Exim) is providing a guarantee on the loan – its first authorisation of aircraft exports to flydubai.

“This financing is a first for US Exim for this successful new carrier in the Middle East, and this export is a great opportunity for Boeing to expand its market reach in the United Arab Emirates. The aircraft financed supported hundreds of jobs at Boeing and its suppliers across the country,” says US Exim chairman and president Fred Hochberg.

Flydubai, Dubai’s government-owned airline, operates a route network of over 45 destinations across the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe.