Aviation
Air Arabia’s new start-ups in Pakistan and Armenia to start flying by early June
Joint venture airlines Fly Jinnah and Fly Arna will begin operations with leased Airbus A320 jets.
UAE-listed Air Arabia plans to start operations of its new joint venture airlines in Pakistan and Armenia by early June after securing the necessary operational licences for the budget carriers, the airline’s group chief executive said.
Air Arabia will place three leased Airbus A320 jets with Karachi-based Fly Jinnah to start with domestic flights initially, while Fly Arna will be assigned two leased A320s to begin its first international route, Adel Ali said on the sidelines of the Arab Aviation Summit in Ras Al Khaimah on Tuesday.
They’re both really working on the technical side of getting the Air Operator Certificate [AOC], and we’re optimistic that by early May we will be able to do all that is required. If we do all that and we get issued with the AOC, then we hope that either by late May or early June we should be able to operate both airlines,” he told reporters at the conference.
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, a low-cost joint venture launched with Etihad Airways at the height of the pandemic, is set to expand further this year as the emirate loosens pandemic-related travel restrictions, he said. It currently operates four Airbus narrow-body aircraft.
There’s a lot of work going on and we’d like before the summer to put more airplanes into that hub,” Mr Ali said. A decision on the number of aircraft will be made within the next few weeks.
Air Arabia operates a network of bases spread across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. The Sharjah-based carrier has been pushing ahead with expansion after the Covid-19 pandemic as low-cost airlines bet on a recovery in short-haul travel demand amid rapid vaccine campaigns around the world.
Air Arabia signed the joint venture deals to establish new airlines in Abu Dhabi in 2020, and in Armenia and Pakistan in 2021.
