Air Arabia to start daily flights from Karachi
Thursday, June 19, 2008
KARACHI: Air Arabia is looking forward to starting daily flights from Karachi to its hub in Sharjah besides adding Sailkot to its network of two existing destinations, which also includes Peshawar, a top airline official told The News on Wednesday.
The decision to enhance frequency and expand reach in Pakistan reflects UAEs first budget carriers endeavour to capture the growing middle class in the Southeast Asian region, said Shalini Rajan, Regional Manager for Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Turkey and CIS countries.
Income of people has increased and there has been a rapid growth in the number of new cost-conscious entrepreneurs, she said, expressing confidence that rising inflation will not hurt the number of people traveling by air.
Air Arabia has grown phenomenally since its launch in 2003 as a low-cost carrier. In a span of just five years, it has carried seven million passengers and expanded the network to 41 destinations.
Despite continuous surge in oil prices, the airline has continued with its growth projection mainly because of its low-cost model. We have managed cost ruthlessly, said Ms Rajan, listing the measures taken in that regard. We have single-model aircraft with all-economy configuration, our turnaround time is 45 minutes and there is no crew layover as none of the flights time period exceeds five hours.
This, she said, has helped save expenses of crew staying in hotels. Initially, a lot of people thought that the airline would not perform up to the mark. But against the expectations, our performance was very good and the airline started becoming popular.
She said Air Arabia has created a lot of first-time flyers with its low fares. So we have not only created a market for ourselves but a lot of upcoming budget carriers will benefit as well. At times, the airline has charged fares 40 per cent below market cost.
The airline operates on point-to-point basis and its focus is on increasing frequency to existing destinations rather than expanding the network. It has established another hub in Kathmandu, Nepal, to serve the market of the Far East region.
Ms Rajan said airlines in Asia were struggling to sustain their business, threatened by high fuel cost and termed it one of the hindrances to mergers and takeovers.
Airlines around the world have been cutting costs in a bid to survive one of the worst periods for the aviation industry. In Pakistan, so far only one airline, Airblue, has taken the initiative to cut cost.
Air Arabia operates four and three weekly flights to Sharjah from Karachi and Peshawar respectively. It has a fleet of 15 aircraft and has 49 new aircraft on order.
Air Arabia to start daily flights from Karachi