JEDDAH, 17 March 2005 — Budget airline Air Arabia’s seats were up for grabs soon after it announced its “unbelievably low” fares a few days ago.
One-way fare from Jeddah and Riyadh to Sharjah was SR99 and from Dammam just SR69. People wondered how fares could go as low as SR99 for a Jeddah-Sharjah trip when normal one-way fare on Air Arabia is up to SR450, excluding taxes. The published one-way fare from Jeddah to Dubai on any other airline is well over SR1,200. “Naturally the telephone numbers for Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar mentioned for bookings have been continuously ringing,” an Air Arabia spokesman said yesterday.
Each of the airline’s flights has 150 seats, all in economy class. Up to 25 percent of these constitute the ‘low fares’ on offer that are sold through the Internet on first-come first-served basis,” Mohammed J. Mahmood, regional general manager of the Sharjah-based budget airline for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, told Arab News.
“We’re a no-frills, low-cost carrier and this is a promotional offer meant to create market awareness. The idea in offering such low fares is to promote the new concept of budget airline and stimulate people to travel, especially those who have never traveled due to unaffordable fares. We find that most of our passengers who used to travel by surface transport are first-time air travelers now,” Mahmood said.
The airline made the offer in the current “lean season” when the season is low for all air carriers. “How low the fares can go depends on the load factor for a particular flight,” Mahmood said. The airline keeps monitoring the flight load and revises its fares upward or downward.
“We offer limited seats on each aircraft with such promotional fares. The sooner a passenger books a seat through the Internet, the lower the fare he pays.
Payment is generally done through the credit card, but in the absence of such cards passengers who hold Internet bookings can go to the designated offices and pay cash.
“When we announce low fares, it doesn’t mean that all of our 150 seats are going to be sold at those fares,” he said.
The response has been “astounding,” said Bosco Rodriguez, manager at the airline’s general sales agent Portfolio Travel. “From 7.30 a.m. phones start ringing continuously, with many callers complaining that the lines are always busy throughout the day.”
Students and families as well as the general public have been among our passengers.
Like all low cost carriers, Air Arabia does not issue tickets, but just a computer printout. It does not serve meals or drinks, nor does it provide video or audio entertainment. It also does not provide kits like the eye-band. We save on all such overheads including on the cabin crew and travel agency commission, as seats are not sold through travel agents,” he said, adding that water is served free of cost, but snacks have to be purchased on board. Sandwiches or shawerma may cost from SR5 to SR12.
The airline has been operating in all eight flights a week - four from Dammam and two each from Riyadh and Jeddah.
“We operate to 15 destinations from Sharjah and will start flying to Bombay from March 26,” he said, adding that Air Arabia started its operations on Oct. 28, 2003, as a “no-frills” airline. “The only disadvantage with such airlines is if you change your travel plan after paying for your seat, you have to pay a price, say about SR50 for each change. And if you cancel your trip then you don’t stand to get a cash refund but get it on credit which is available for use for one year,” a senior travel agent said.
“Such offers at throw-away prices are termed as reverse marketing, because in such cases customers will chase the airline and not the other way round,” he added.