Fujairah airline plans daily service to Abu Dhabi

The new carrier due to start daily flights between Fujairah and Abu Dhabi next year will be branded as Eastern Express, the company behind the airline has confirmed. “Eastern Express, a private company, will be the first airline in this region to introduce the air feeder concept which is already well established in Europe and the United States,” Al Hajjar Aviation said in a statement.Eastern Express will operate a double daily schedule between Fujairah and Abu Dhabi from the first quarter of 2012.In June, Mike Carvath, CEO of Al Hajjar Aviation, told Arabian Business the company was close to finalising investment of about $3.5m in a bid to launch operations and finance the leasing of its first aircraft. “There are offers on the table but we are still interested to talk to other parties. We have options where we can go ahead to launch services in the first quarter of 2012,” he said. The carrier plans to offer low-cost tickets but with full flight services on board and will transport passengers between emirates in the UAE.Eastern Express plans to operate using a leased a Jetstream 41 aircraft from BAE Systems, which can carry up to 29 passengers. In addition to the Abu Dhabi service, Carvath is planning a daily route to Bahrain, before expanding to Doha, Muscat, Kuwait and the Indian subcontinent. The carrier has received its AOC (Air Operator's Certificate) in the UAE and has submitted its business plan to the UAE Department of Civil Aviation. Fujairah, one of the UAE’s poorer emirates, has made efforts to transform itself into a trade and tourism hub to compete with neighbouring Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The city is overhauling its airport with a second passenger terminal, a new 3,000m parallel taxiway and control tower, and cargo village scheduled for completion by 2025. The airport hopes to lure low-cost airlines in a bid to tap into the UAE’s large migrant worker population and the Gulf’s budget domestic travellers. FIA currently caters for just 100,000 passengers a year, but Carvath said it may offer lucrative opportunities in the future. “[It] a strategic location [and] it is one of the last of the seven emirates to start growing,” he said. “We see massive potential in Fujairah… It makes commercial sense to connect Fujairah to the capital if you are going to do a domestic service as it is one of the longest distances by road. In the western world domestic and feeder services have proven to be very successful.” But analysts warned the UAE’s aviation market is approaching saturation. In addition to flag carriers Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways, the Gulf state also plays host to budget airlines Air Arabia and RAK Airways. "The UAE aviation market is saturated… The major UAE airlines have already established their footprints in this market by providing good service at acceptable fares. These factors will hinder the entrance of another regional airline in the UAE market,” an aerospace and defence analyst at consultancy Frost and Sullivan said in an emailed statement. From / Arabian Business News