United Arab Emirates (UAE) low-cost carrier, Air Arabia, has announced plans to introduce regular links to Hamad International Airport in Doha from its base at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, complementing its existing operations from Sharjah International Airport.
The budget operator launched a four times weekly link on the Ras Al Khaimah – Doha route from February 22, 2015, boosting its network from the northern Emirate to ten destinations with twice weekly flights to Kathmandu in Nepal also launching the same day.
“When we launched our Ras Al Khaimah hub in 2014, we made a firm commitment to increase connectivity to and from the Northern Emirates. Ras Al Kaimah is one of the region’s most attractive destinations and we are confident that our newly launched flights will provide customers with great connectivity between both cities, both for leisure and for business,” said Adel A Ali, chief executive officer, Air Arabia Group.
Air Arabia signed a strategic partnership with the Ras Al Khaimah Department of Civil Aviation to become the Emirate’s designated carrier for passenger services from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in spring 2014 following the collapse of RAK Airways.
The closure of RAK Airways in December 2013 had been a massive blow to the Emirate as it was Ras Al Khaimah International Airport’ sonly resident carrier. Its network had mainly served destinations across the Indian sub-continent supporting the strong migrant worker flows between the UAE and India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Ras Al Khaimah – Doha market was among those previously served by RAK Airways with up to daily flights operating between August 2011 and the airline’s closure in January 2014. In its two full years of operation between 64,000 and 75,000 annual passengers were using the flights with average loads in the mid 70 per cent scale.
Air Arabia’s inaugural flight from its second hub in the UAE took off on May 6, 2014, to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. It has since added direct services to Cairo in Egypt; Muscat in Oman; Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan; and Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh.
“We look forward to launching new routes to customers over the course of 2015 as Air Arabia continues on its growth trajectory,” added Ali.
In our chart, below, we look more closely at air capacity between the UAE and Qatar. Over the past ten years the average number of daily flights between the nations has increased from 34 in 2005 to 88 in 2014 and the available capacity in each direction has risen 146.2 per cent from 1.22 million seats in 2005 to 3.02 million in 2014, an average annual rate of 16.3 per cent.
Looking closely at last year’s flight schedules, it is Qatar Airways that dominates the market between the two countries with a 47.8 per cent capacity share, followed by Emirates Airline (19.3 per cent), flydubai (18.4 per cent), Etihad Airways (6.7 per cent) and then Air Arabia (5.4 per cent).
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