Yemen’s national airline Yemenia is scheduled to start two new routes this summer as part of its expansion plans.

The airline will start a new route to Guangzhou in China in June and a new route to Lagos in Nigeria will start operating in July.

To accommodate the new routes, Yemenia has ordered 10 new Airbus A320 aircraft that will be delivered over the next three years.

The airline signed a $700m deal in January with Airbus and will receive the first four A320 aircraft in 2011 (MEED 24:1:10).

Yemenia will take delivery of two more jets in 2012 and the remaining four A320 jets in 2013.

The carrier has a total of 16 aircraft currently and has a further 10 A350 aircraft on order. Yemenia expects to take delivery of these planes between 2015-17.