UAE: Air Arabia Launches More Routes This Year

Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia PJSC , the largest low-cost carrier operator in the Middle East and North Africa, has added five new international routes since the beginning of 2016. The airline now operates flights to over 120 destinations in 33 countries across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Asia, and Europe from its five international hubs.

This month, Air Arabia began operating twice weekly flights from Sharjah to Batumi, the second largest city of Georgia on the Black Sea. The carrier launched a new route from Fez (Morocco) to Toulouse (France) during February 2016, followed by the opening of new routes from Sharjah to Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in March, plus new routes from Marrakesh (Morocco) to Pau (France) and from Amman (Jordan) to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in April.

Air Arabia began operations in October 2003 from its main hub at Sharjah International Airport in the UAE and now has additional international hubs at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan, Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport in Morocco, Alexandria’s Borg Al Arab International Airport in Egypt and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in the UAE.

More than 7.6 million passengers flew with Air Arabia in 2015, a 12 percent increase on the previous year. The airline also had a strong start to 2016, carrying more than 2.1 million passengers between January and March 2016, up 17 percent on the same period last year.

The budget carrier’s home base, Sharjah International Airport, registered a 12 percent increase in overall passenger traffic during the first three months of 2016, with a record 2.7 million passengers being handled by the airport, compared with 2.4 million during the first quarter of 2015. Total passenger numbers passing through Sharjah airport topped 10 million for the first time during 2015.