Air Arabia Airlines Expands
Airbus A320 Aircraft Will Fly from Europe to Asia
The UAE's low cost airline will increase it's fleet size 400% with an IPO according to His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Thani, Chairman of Air Arabia.
Air Arabia, the first low cost airline in the Middle East has grown from two leased aircraft to a current fleet of nine new airbus aircraft and is poised to become a giant in the low cost airline industry.
Modeled after the successful giant of American aviation, Southwest Airlines, Air Arabia's plans were announced by CEO Adel Ali (former General Manager Middle Eastern and African Divisions for British Airways). Ali plans to take Air Arabia public this year to add destinations and serve over 3.4 million passengers.
With the Initial Public Offering the airline intends to purchase 25 additional aircraft making it one of the largest operators of A-320 aircraft in the region. Listed in Forbes Arabia Top 40 Brands, Air Arabia has achieved the Airbus Industries award for “the best daily world utilization of the A320 fleet since August 2005.” I
n 2006 the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation declared Air Arabia one of the world’s best Low Cost Carriers! Also in 2007 Air Arabia won the ‘Middle East e-Business Portal of the Year' award as well as other service and reliability awards.
In 2006 net profit rose 222%, passenger load factor was 82.1% and total revenue increased 82%. Air Arabia is “committed to enabling customers who have not been able to afford air travel in the past to start traveling…and those who do travel to travel more frequently.” With her new and spacious fleet of aircraft Air Arabia provides low fares while still offering quality and luxury.
Finding a large niche, the airline efficiently serves customers in parts of the world that were neglected and forgotten by the legacy airlines. In the 2001 census 35 cities in the world’s second largest country (by population) – India - had over 1 million residents; an easy 2-5 hour flight to any of them for Air Arabia.
China, the world’s most populated country, is waiting for the arrival of the low cost carrier from the UAE. Russia and former satellite nations of the Soviet Union already have several cities served by the growing company with planned increased service throughout Africa. A potential market of 2.2 billion people is within the reach of the carrier from Sharjah (a $3 bus ride to Dubai) once she gets her 25 additional aircraft.
