DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones) -- The U.A.E.-based RAK Airways ordered four Boeing 737-800 NGs worth AED1.65 billion ($449 million), the company said in a statement Monday.

The airline added that the deal includes purchasing rights for two additional aircraft. “RAK Airways hopes to fly to India by April this year along with destinations in Nepal, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Beirut,” said Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, the deputy chairman of RAK Airways.
Al Qasimi added that the airline will adopt a hub and spoke strategy and is looking to expand to East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
In the next two years the company aims to cover 20 destinations, the statement added. RAK Airways is a full-service airline and was launched in November 2007 in Ras Al Khaimah, one of seven sheikdoms that comprise the U.A.E.