Air Arabia flies to India [Archives:2005/829/Community]

Mumbai, INDIA, 27 March 2005 – Air Arabia LLC, one of the UAE's national airlines and the first low-cost airline of its kind in the Middle East and the North African region, made its inaugural flight to Mumbai yesterday with Air Arabia officials, guests and press accompanying the flight.

Air Arabia's first flight flew an official delegation; led by Air Arabia's Chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Moh'd Al-Thani, CEO Adel Ali and other officials to Mumbai Airport where they were met by dignitaries, press, airport and governmental authorities.

Following the flight, guests were greeted with a reception in the airport.

Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Moh'd Al-Thani said: “India is a key market for us and was part of Air Arabia's initial business plan when our operations commenced; we are extremely pleased to start operations to Mumbai today. We are committed to offering our passengers the best value and the highest quality of service.We look forward to increasing trade and tourism between our two countries.

Our thanks goes to the Indian government and civil aviation authorities for their role in facilitating the start of operations to Mumbai.”

Flights will depart Sharjah International Airport daily at 16:40 and arrive in Mumbai at 21:00 local time.

From Mumbai, flights will depart every day at 21:45 and arrive in Sharjah at 23:25 local time. With these convenient timings, business travellers can enjoy the day in Mumbai for meetings and visitors get to enjoy the whole day sightseeing and shopping before returning on the evening flight to Sharjah.

As Air Arabia's fare structure is based on supply and demand and fares increase as more seats are booked on a particular flight, booking early will allow customers to take advantage of these fares. Air Arabia will offer substantially lower fares than other airlines and will ensure that fares will be at least 15-20% lower than other airlines at all times.

CEO Adel Ali commented: “After announcing the start date for flights to India and simultaneously loading the flight schedule into the system, 2,800 passengers were booked in the first 24 hours.

This is an important route for Air Arabia as by connecting India to our existing routes, we can now offer Indian nationals in the region the opportunity to travel more often at lower fares to India for business or leisure.

We look forward to enabling Gulf residents and tourists that have not been able to afford air travel in the past to start travelling and those who do travel to do so more frequently.”

With the addition of its fifth Airbus A320 earlier this year, Air Arabia will be offering travellers to and from India the very best in customer comfort with brand new aircraft combining the widest and most spacious seats in its class and the largest seat pitch in the market – that of 34 inches – in comparison to 29 and at the most 31 inches offered on most regional airlines.

In addition, Air Arabia offers an in-flight entertainment system with both video and audio choices to passengers on short and long haul routes.

Air Arabia is a Sharjah government owned airline currently flying from Sharjah ten times a week to Alexandria; daily to Bahrain, Beirut, Colombo, Damascus, Doha and Muscat; five days a week to Kuwait; four days a week to Dammam; three days a week to Khartoum and Aleppo; and two days a week to Assiut, Jeddah, Riyadh and Sana'a.

Committed to enabling customers who have not been able to afford air travel in the past to start travelling throughout the region and those who do travel to travel more frequently, Air Arabia offers tremendous opportunities to travellers who are looking for competitive fares.

It aims to make air travel more convenient and frequent, while providing the lowest fares in the market without sacrificing the standards of safety, quality or service offered.

Bookings can be made through Air Arabia's call centre in Sana'a tel :009671 440001-2-3; the website www.airarabia.com; Air Arabia Travel Shops; or appointed travel agents.
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