DUBAI, 9 May 2003 — The Middle East’s first no-frills airline, menaJet, is to launch in December taking advantage of the post-Sept. 11 explosion of travel within the Arab world, company officials announced yesterday.
The airline, which will be based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, will initially operate two Airbus A320s on a range of routes in the Middle East and North Africa and hopes to offer discounts of between 50 and 80 percent on the fares of traditional carriers. “Iran is something we would like to discuss later but at the moment we are starting with inter-Arab travel,” said general manager Mazen Hajjar.
“We will be duplicating some routes and opening some new routes as well,” he said, adding that the precise network had yet to be worked out. Hajjar said a number of factors, including the impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 bombings had helped create “the critical mass for an explosion of air travel” in the region.
Preliminary figures for 2002 from the Airports Council International showed that, while passenger numbers were down three percent in North America and flat in Europe, they were up five percent in the Middle East, with travelers staying in the region to escape anti-Arab sentiment in the West.
