Air Arabia to expand services in three Indian cities

Mumbai, Oct 26 (UNI) Air Arabia LLC, a low-fares airline in the Middle East and North Africa and the first international low-fares airline to fly to India, has now announced operations to Chennai and Thiruvanathapuram in November 2006 and operations to Ahmedabad in March 2007.

The expansion plans come within a year-and-a-half of successful operations to India, a Air Arabia press release issued here today said.

With the launch of Chennai sector on November two and Thiruvananthapuram on November five, Air Arabia will now connect six Indian cities - Mumbai, Nagpur, Jaipur, Kochi, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram to the Gulf.

Mr Rohit Ramachandran, Regional Manager, India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan said, ''With the launch of two more stations, we look forward to giving more people access to affordable international air travel.

We are pleased to offer connectivity from across the country. As part of the airlines strategy to develop new destinations, Air Arabia was the first international airline to commence operations from Nagpur in October 2005 and Jaipur in May 2006. We are keen to continue investing resources in areas of India that need it the most''.

Air Arabia will be launching five new sectors in November 2006; Chennai and Trivandrum in India, Katmandu (Nepal) and stations in Syria and Armenia, he said.

The airline globally broke even in its first year, and boasted profits of 30.1 million dirham last year. India is one of the largest markets for Air Arabia and contributes in excess of 12% of overall revenues. Air Arabia expects to carry 2.5 mn passengers in 2006, he added.

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