Air Arabia plans to expand operations to Oman, says CEO

Amman/Muscat: Air Arabia, the leading budget airline in the Gulf region, is planning to expand its operations to Oman, said a senior official of the airline.
“We have a substantial operation into Oman. Oman is a sizable big station for us. We are putting some more frequencies from Ras Al Khaima and from Sharjah to Muscat and Salalah,” Abdel Al Ali, group chief executive officer of Air Arabia, told Times of Oman, on the sidelines of the Arab Aviation Summit at Dead Sea, Jordan. However, he did not specify how many more flights the airline is planning to Omani cities.
He said that Air Arabia started operation to Muscat with a daily flight, and now the airline has three flights per day. “Both Oman and the United Arab Emirates have an open bilateral relation. The capacity tends to increase and decrease depending on supply and demand,” he added.
Ali said that the airline plans to enhance flight frequencies to Salalah (from the UAE) during the Khareef season. “But during off-season, we have a daily flight and it seems ok.”
Referring to the recent move to start a budget airline by Oman, he said “more of such airlines will strengthen the reality that the market needs budget airlines. I don’t think that the budget airlines have taken its right opportunities in the Arab world.”
“It is a business and the business will grow along with a growth in population. The more the competition, the better it is for the customers,” noted the Air Arabia chief.
Ali also said that the passenger traffic in the region is expected to grow between 7 per cent to 10 per cent per annum next year.
Air Arabia has achieved a 10 per cent growth in passenger traffic and a 30 per cent growth in profitability for the first nine months of 2016, over the same period of last year.
Talking about the recent economic slowdown and its impact on airlines, he said “economic cycles do affect businesses. But the behavior of people has changed, travel is becoming a part of their lives.”
In the Middle East region, including GCC, there was a massive capacity expansion of airlines and the economies started showing signs of slowdown. “These two factors have created a supply-demand imbalance.”
Ali also noted that Air Arabia will get five aircraft every year between now and 2020. The airline has already taken the option to acquire five Airbus 320s and signed lease agreement for another 6 planes.