RIYADH/DUBAI - Saudi Arabia's newest airline Riyadh Air said on Wednesday it had placed an order for 60 Airbus narrowbody A321-family jets as it prepares to start operations in 2025.

The deal, signed at the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh, brings to 132 the total number of jets ordered by the Saudi startup, which last year ordered 39 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with options for 33 more.

Riyadh Air Chief Executive Tony Douglas told Reuters the airline now planned to start talks with Airbus and Boeing for an order of A350-1000 or 777X wide-body jets within two months.

He declined to say how many wide-body aircraft the airline would order or when it intended to finalise order negotiations.

Riyadh Air would receive its first A321 in the second half of 2026 with the last jet to be delivered in 2030, Douglas said, adding that the airline would later decide how many A321 and larger A321 LR and A321 XLRs would be included in the order.

Financial terms were not disclosed but such a deal would be worth around $4 billion after typical discounts, based on estimated delivery prices from aviation consultancy Cirium Ascend.

Riyadh Air, owned by Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund, has secured the deliveries within an unusually short lead time given the aircraft industry's congested production lines and strong demand that has seen Airbus sold out for most models through the end of the decade.

Industry sources said the timing suggested Riyadh Air had been able to secure early slots as many carriers across the world struggle to make good on pending orders because of weak balance sheets.

Airbus declined to comment on the timing of deliveries.

"We're absolutely delighted that we have worked through a complex multilateral deal to be able to announce this with Airbus today," Douglas told Reuters by phone from Riyadh

The airline also on Wednesday signed a 5 billion riyal ($1.3 billion) credit facility with a syndicate of banks, he said, when asked about financing the aircraft order.

Douglas said the airline would launch in the second half of 2025, and would likely sign a partnership with a carrier in northwestern Europe and another in the Indian subcontinent.

The Airbus deal follows months of speculation after a report that Riyadh Air had chosen to buy at least 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to meet its narrowbody needs alongside the larger Boeing 787s.

The airline had cautioned, however, that it was in the midst of a sequence of potential orders and that it was studying both Boeing and Airbus for the next narrowbody purchase.

($1 = 3.7556 riyals)

(Reporting by Yousef Saba, Pesha Magid in Riyadh; Alexander Cornwell, and Federico Maccioni in Dubai; Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Dominique Vidalon, Tim Hepher; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Potter)