JEDDAH, 22 June 2004 — The UAE’s national budget airline Air Arabia has made its inaugural flight to Saudi Arabia. They landed in Jeddah on Sunday and in Dammam yesterday. The third, to Riyadh, follows today.
Air Arabia’s Chairman Sheikh Abdullah ibn Mohammed Al-Thani and Chief Executive Officer Adel Ali told reporters on arrival in Jeddah that flying to the Kingdom was a major achievement for the region’s first low-cost carrier. “The airline is delighted to start operations to the Kingdom. We would like to thank the Kingdom and its aviation authorities for their role in facilitating our operations and their cooperation in making this possible,” Al-Thani said. He added Air Arabia is committed to enabling passengers who have not been able to afford air travel in the past to start traveling throughout the region and help others do it more frequently.
Flights from Sharjah to Jeddah operate two days a week — Wednesday and Sunday. A one-way ticket from Sharjah to Jeddah starts from 600 dirhams, excluding government taxes, with similar fares available for the return trip.
Following the example of other budget airlines, fares are lowest the further in advance the flight is booked, rising as the plane fills up.
The Sharjah-owned carrier is currently flying from Sharjah to Bahrain, Beirut, Damascus, Kuwait, Muscat, Alexandria, Assiut, Aleppo, Doha, Khartoum and Colombo. “We’re working on plans to extend our services to the subcontinent by year-end,” Adel Ali said.
