Air Arabia hits 20 million

Merely eight years after Air Arabia’s first flight, the Sharjah-based airline has welcomes onboard its 20 millionth passenger, demonstrating its ability to progress and feed the growing demand of passengers. As a low cost carrier, it has proven itself worthy in the Middle East and Africa, carrying great appeal to regional passengers. Air Arabia’s first flight took off from Sharjah to Manama on October 28, 2003, marking the introduction of the LCC concept to the Middle East. At the time, the carrier served five regional destinations. By the end of its first 12 months of operations, the pioneering airline carried 500,000 passengers to 16 different destinations. Currently, the airline flies to 66 destinations from three different hubs in the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Egypt. Last year, the airline served approximately 4.5 million passengers. They operate a global fleet of 27 new Airbus A320 aircraft. “Eight years ago — when our first flight took off from Sharjah International Airport, at a time when the low-cost model was just introduced to the region — few of us could have imagined the day when we would cross the 20-million passenger mark,” said Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia. Their focus remains strictly on their quality deliverance, great service and value for money fares. However, their ambitions have not yet been met, for they still view themselves as a young airline with many horizons to expand to and many targets to meet.