Air Arabia sticks to CFM LEAPs for its future Airbus fleet

Air Arabia is sticking with CFM LEAP-1As for its future fleet expansion in the coming years. The Sharjah-based low-cost airline has signed an agreement with CFM for 240 engines to power 120 Airbus A320neo family aircraft. CEO Adel Al Ali told AirInsight on Sunday that a decision was imminent, which was duly announced on Day 2 of the 2023 Dubai Airshow. At the same event four years ago in 2019, Air Arabia placed the order. They include 73 A320neo’s, 27 A321neo’s, and 20 A321XLRs. The airline didn’t specify the engine choice at the time, something which is usually done some two years before deliveries start. Those deliveries were originally planned to begin in 2024, but Air Arabia decided earlier this year to push them out by one year from 2025 onward. “We looked at the supply chain challenges and other issues that have been going on. After consultation with Airbus and others, we thought it was better to move deliveries to 2025,” says Adel Al Ali. It hopefully gives Air Arabia more stability in deliveries as the supply chain issues should be less in 2025. “In the meantime, we have brought ten leased aircraft in, so we can continue our growth in 2024.” By the end of September, the airline had 72 owned and leased A320ceo/neo family aircraft. Strong 9M results Air Arabia reported very strong results in the first two quarters of 2023. It followed this up with another good Q3 on Monday, when it reported a net profit of AED 522 million versus AED 416 million in the same quarter last year. Revenues grew only slightly to AED 1.63 billion from AED 1.6 billion. For January-September, the carrier reports an AED 1.32 billion net profit, up from AED 867 million. Revenues were up by 16 percent to AED 4.45 billion from AED 3.84 billion. Speaking one day before the Q3/9M results were released, Al Ali confirmed that Air Arabia continues to see continued growth since the pandemic ended. This started earlier in the UAE than in most other regions, as the Emirates relaxed travel restrictions in 2021. “Obviously, the world has opened up and that fueled the growth. We have not achieved the 2019 financial results yet, but we will operate at an 18 percent higher capacity this year compared to 2019. Dubai and the UAE continue to grow, bringing in more people, with various entry schemes that have been eased. The tourism sector continues to grow.” Al Ali said that the conflict in Gaza and Israel has not affected his airline yet, “but I think it will slow down the aviation industry a little bit. Overall, we are quite positive about 2023.” Fly Jinnah goes international Air Arabia’s Pakistani sister airline Fly Jinnah will launch international services in the not too far distance. It has been granted authorization to operate outside Pakistan. “By the law, you have to fly one year domestically, which we have completed at the end of October. We applied for international rights and have been granted them. So we now need to do all the preparations for international flying.” Fly Jinnah has performed very well in its first year, says Al Ali. “There has been extremely good support from the authorities and everybody else in Pakistan. And what is most important, the public has received the airline extremely well.” The other sister airline, Fly Arna, has been affected by the recent political tensions in Armenia around the enclave of Nagorny Karabakh. “It has and this is the reason that Fly Arna hasn’t grown beyond the two aircraft. Hopefully, once things develop and improve there, we should be looking at it again.” Air Arabia has a strong position in the UAE and GCC countries but will be faced with growing competition from Saudi Arabia. Adel Al Ali has no problem with that. “It is excellent. For me, the more the merrier. Saudi Arabia is a big market. The fact that they will have many more airlines, and more operations. This business is one of reciprocity, so one hopes that when they fly more, they will allow more airlines to fly into the country. Their strategy is to grow the market, so when it grows, it grows for everybody.”

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