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Air Arabia to receive two A 320 aircraft this year

ABU DHABI - Air Arabia will receive two A320 aircraft out of the 44 it had ordered from Airbus at a total cost of $3.5 billion way back in 
November 2007.

“We will start receiving the aircraft towards the end of this year from Airbus. After the first two to be delivered later this year, the remaining aircraft will also arrive in batches,’’ Housam Raydan, Manager, Corporate Communications of the airline told
 Khaleej Times on the sidelines of function arranged at the Abu Dhabi International Airport to receive the first direct Air Arabia flight from Alexandria
 to Abu Dhabi.

“Our present fleet strength is about 25, and they comprise a mix of owned and leased aircraft,’’ he said in reply to a question.

“Air Arabia now has three hubs, Sharjah, Casablanca in Morocco and Alexandria in Egypt, and we have plans to start another hub from Amman in Jordan. Abu Dhabi is the fifth destination from Alexandria where we started our hub one and a half months back. That we could grow so fast from that hub is indicative of the potential we see there for our services,’’ Housam said.

He said Air Arabia was not planning to operate services from Abu Dhabi to destinations in India.

Air Arabia will operate four times per week between Burr Al Arab International Airport, Alexandria, Egypt and Abu Dhabi International Airport in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The Low Cost Carrier will fly to Abu Dhabi on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Flights depart from Alexandria at 22.00 to arrive in Abu Dhabi at 02.40 the following day, and return flights depart from Abu Dhabi at 03:20, to arrive in Alexandria at
 06:20 the same day.

ADAC posts 12 per cent growth

Ahmed Mohammed Al Haddabi, senior vice president operations of Abu Dhabi Airport Company (ADAC), said Abu Dhabi airport has posted about 12 per cent growth this year in terms of passenger traffic this year.

“We will be releasing our accurate assessments of last six months’ traffic within a few days. We are quite optimistic about the growth prospects this year,’’ he said in reply to questions 
from Khaleej Times.

“Air Arabia is the fifth airline to operate services from Abu Dhabi this year. We are in talks with many airlines, and more carriers are likely to launch services this year,’’ he said. 


ramavarman@khaleejtimes.com