• Home
• /
• Aviation

Air Arabia fleet to reach 44 by end-2013: Adel Ali

Air Arabia’s fleet will reach 44 by the end of next year and it will continue to explore new markets, according to group chief executive officer Adel Ali. The Sharjah-based budget airline currently operates a total fleet of 31 new Airbus A320 aircraft, serving 75 routes from three hubs in UAE, Morocco and Egypt.

The airline continues to get delivery of eight or nine aircraft every year and this year four new aeroplanes have already joined the fleet, Ali told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the launch of Air Arabia’s first ‘City Terminal Check-in’ in Dubai.

“Between now and end of this year we will get three more aeroplanes and next year 10 more,” he said. The fleet expansion continues to happen, he added.

Talking about Indian market, he said it’s very strong and important market and that’s the reason Air Arabia has doubled it’s frequency to Indian capital.

“We will be happy to expand more in India,” he added. Starting 1^st of September, Air Arabia offers flights 14 times per week from it’s Sharjah hub.

The low-cost carrier currently serves 13 cities across India from Sharjah. The first and largest low-cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa started operations to New Delhi from March 31, 2008 and since then, the airline has seen increasing demand for the appealing value for money 
product it offers.

A big number of students and families fly regularly between Delhi and Sharjah benefiting from Air Arabia’s wide network across the GCC, Europe and Asia.

Air Arabia has also announced the launch of Odessa, Ukraine from October 12. The launch of services to Odessa increases Air Arabia’s flights to Ukraine to 10 weekly flights, complementing the carriers existing service to Kiev, Donetsk and Kharkiv.

Last month, the budget carrier announced that it flew a record number of passengers in July as almost half a million escaped the summer heat to fly to one of the airline’s destinations. Statistics show that the airline carried a total of 477,839 passengers in the month, up nearly 10 per cent year-on-year, the highest number of passengers that the airline handled in a month since inception. The airline’s seat load factor - passengers as a percentage of total seats available-stood at an impressive 85 per cent, signaling an ever growing customer demand for Air Arabia’s value-for-money services. — abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com