Air Arabia CEO reveals major expansion plan

Air Arabia is aiming to increase the number of aircraft it owns from 20 planes to 100 over the next five years and to establish at least two new hubs in the Middle East, company CEO Adel Ali has revealed.

He added he expected the number of business travellers using the airline to double in the next 12 months.

“I look in five years time to have 100 aeroplanes operating across the Arab region…We are examining at the moment five more places for hubs. We will probably end up with about two of the five,”  Ali said.

He would not specify where the hubs might be located.

The downturn in the region’s economy was not adversely affecting the Sharjah-based company’s performance, he said, adding that cheap air travel was proving increasingly attractive to business people looking for alternatives to more expensive legacy airlines.

“As the economic conditions get tougher, more people down-trade. A good eleven or twelve percent of our business at the moment is corporate business, but I reckon that this will move to 20 or 25 percent by the end of the year, or the middle of next year.”

In the first quarter of 2009, Air Arabia’s net profits rose 32 percent from the year before to AED103m.

The airline, which was established in 2003, currently flies to 44 destinations across the MENA region, Europe and Asia from its hubs in Sharjah and Morocco.

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