The chief of the first Arab low-cost carrier, Sharjah-based Air Arabia, welcomed competition from other budget airlines to strengthen a segment that represents only seven per cent of Arab air travel.
“Having more low-cost airlines is a good thing,” Air Arabia’s chief executive officer Adel Ali said at an aviation conference.
The share of the no-frills carriers in the Arab travel market is no more than 6.5 to seven per cent, said the head of the largest budget airline in the Arab World when asked about competition on his doorstep from Flydubai.
Air Arabia took to the sky in 2003 and now boasts a fleet of 23 planes while Flydubai, a sister firm of Dubai’s Emirates, made its maiden flight in 2009, and has a fleet of 13 aircraft.
Other main budget carriers in the region include Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways and Saudi Nas Air.
“There are 62 low-cost carriers in Europe... The Middle East and North Africa has seven only,” Mr Ali said, as he pointed out the potential for the expansion of air travel in the Gulf region, where a “population of two billion people is within four hours of travel.”
Mr Ali expects Air Arabia’s business to grow at 13 to 14 per cent annually, while such growth would surge to over 40 per cent if MENA countries adopt open-skies policies, he said.
“It is important for countries to open domestic airports to international carriers,” he added, pointing to the economic and employment benefits brought to provincial cities by opening their airports to foreign airlines.
In addition to its main hub in Sharjah, Air Arabia has opened two hubs in Morocco and Egypt through joint ventures, allowing it to fly to European markets.
It is also opening a new hub in Jordan through another partnership.
“We hope to start that around June,” he said. The head of the only publicly listed Arab carrier urged Arab governments to privatise their national carriers in order to create a market for mergers and acquisitions.
Arab air traffic grew by 12 per cent last year with passenger numbers reaching around 228 million, while carriers’ fleets also expanded by 12 percent to 856 aircraft, according to statistics cited by Mr Ali.