Air Arabia Abu Dhabi to make European debut in early 3Q21

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi (3L, Abu Dhabi Int’l) will make its European debut next month with flights to Bosnia & Herzegovina, ch-aviation schedule analysis has revealed. ch-aviation schedules data shows the budget carrier will connect its Abu Dhabi Int’l hub with Sarajevo 2x weekly starting July 12. This will be followed by a 2x weekly service to Yerevan, Armenia on July 13 and a 3x weekly flight to Tbilisi, Georgia starting on July 14. Operations are onboard the airline’s fleet of two A320-200s. Until this development, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s network had focussed on the Middle East, North Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Last week, Air Arabia chief executive Adel Ali told The National newspaper that the aim is to expand Air Arabia Abu Dhabi to twenty Airbus aircraft over the next five years amid growing optimism about a post-COVID travel boom. The CIS, Arab countries, eastern Europe, and the Indian subcontinent (once travel re-opens) are among the most attractive markets for the airline, he said. According to Ali, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, during its first year of operations, had seen “good” levels of demand despite the impact the pandemic had on international travel. Utilisation touched 13 hours per day. However, while outbound load factors reached more than 70%, inbound load factors were “much lighter”. “Once things open up, we’re optimistic about the [Abu Dhabi] hub,” he added. Despite seeing a 52% drop in year-on-year passenger throughput numbers for 1Q21 (900,000 vs 1.87 million in 2020), Air Arabia Group still managed to register a net profit of AED34 million dirhams (USD9.26 million) for the quarter.