Said Ali
Air Arabia flies Airbus A320s and intends to buy single-aisle planes, either from Airbus's A320 family or Boeing's 737 models.
"We are talking to both companies and we will look at the best deal for the company," said Ali. "We will not mix fleets." Air Arabia will make a decision on the purchase of planes in six to eight months, said Ali, formerly an executive with British Airways.
The carrier, which started operations in October 2003 as the first low-cost carrier in the Middle East, said on January 22 that it applied for approval from the UAE regulatory authorities to go public this year, which would make it the first publicly traded airline in the Gulf.
The company plans to sell 55 per cent of its shares by June and use most of the money raised to purchase the planes. "Our objective of the initial public offering is to expand the size of the airline," Ali said.
"The money will not be used for any other purposes." Air Arabia's net income more than tripled in 2006 to $27.5 million (Dh101m) from a year earlier, he said. The airline carried 1.76 million passengers last year and its average passenger load factor increased from 72 per cent in October 2003, when it started operations, to 81 per cent in 2006, Ali said.
The airline flies to 32 destinations and wants to tap into the Indian market and former countries comprising former Soviet Union. (Bloomberg)