Record airtraffic growth for Air Arabia
 

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

AIRLINE: The Sri Lanka passenger traffic grew by an unprecedented 122 per cent last year for Air Arabia LLC, said Country Manager Mayank Dhingra.

In an interview with the Daily News he said that this growth would continue as the demand for the airline is growing. He said that the airline already has a regional office in Kurunegala and would be opening more in Kandy and in other areas to serve their customers.

Air Arabia the first and only low-fares airline in the Middle East and North Africa is also looking at increasing their daily frequency between Colombo and Sharjah.

However he said that the Colombo international airport's handling charges are one of the highest in the region this area and has to be addressed.

He said that they are also arranging visa facilities to passengers to UAE and also arrange special packages. "The airline is also planning to build their own hotel."

He said that though they are being classified as a low cost airline this does not mean that they offer a low service. He said that the airline adopts several cost cutting strategies such as short turn around time, e-tickets, no free food on board and use of similar type of aircraft.

"Due to this we are in a position to offer air tickets 25 percent less than other airlines," he said. He said that they were the first to introduce paperless tickets (E ticketing) to Sri Lanka and the concept is fast catching up as internet bookings are picking up.

The Airline's financial results in 2005 shows a profit of AED 32.1 million and this is a tremendous growth for a new airline. He said that the rising oil prices did not have much impact.

He said that they are not concentrating on long haul destinations as yet and want to consolidate in the region.

Air Arabia LLC was established as a fully-fledged commercial airline of the United Arab Emirates in 2003. Colombo was their first international destination outside the Gulf and to date remains as the furthest destination.

Current Air Arabia destinations include Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, and Lebanon, Colombo (Sri Lanka, Qatar, Sudan, Kuwait, India (Mumbai and Nagpur) Oman, Yemen, UAE and Iran.