The Sharjah-based Emirati airline, Air Arabia, has announced it will improve its fleet as operations at its Moroccan unit enable the company to keep heads over water following downward income during first quarter of 2017 and a disastrous 2016.
“As we go into the second quarter and then summer I’m optimistic that things will be much brighter,” CEO, Adel Ali said.
“We’ve been growing pretty fast in our hub in Morocco. It has been doing very well for us. Morocco this year will probably be our key fast-growing market.”
The move follows a freeze of aircraft procurement plans announced in 2015 due to negative figures recorded by the company last year.
Air Arabia currently operates 47 A320s stationed in home base Sharjah, also in Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, where it serves six cities, arabianbusiness.com notes.
The airline is planning to station three additional aircrafts in Morocco this summer; to make it eight aircrafts in total operating from the North African country.
Ali argued that aircraft lease rates are currently looking affordable for the Emirati airline allowing it to get additional aircrafts if necessary.
Signs are looking good for the company, he said, adding that people are travelling more as he cited a revival of the Russian market and recovering Egyptian economy.
“That’s a positive signal for all of us. We’ll manage the yield and the cost as long as people are traveling.”
