Air Arabia Abu Dhabi eyes greater Balkan presence

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, the low cost joint venture between Air Arabia and Etihad Airways, is marking the second anniversary since its launch this week and has plans to significantly grow its operations in the coming period, including in the Balkans. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is currently focused on the Middle East and Indian subcontinent markets, serving 24 destinations with a fleet of eight Airbus A320 narrowbodies. It will carry some one million passengers this year. “As the world reopens, we will be looking at many, many more routes”, the airline’s CEO, Adel Abdulla Ali, said. “We will put a circle around Abu Dhabi and wherever we find potential within four to six hours, we'd like to do those routes, including Europe”, Mr Ali added.

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s only destination in the former Yugoslavia is Sarajevo, which it serves on a seasonal summer basis, however, there is further room for growth, despite competition from Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which currently maintains flights to both Sarajevo and Belgrade. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is expected to take over a number of former and present Etihad routes operated by single-aisle aircraft in the near future. Etihad Airways served the Serbian capital until the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, with a brief return during the summer of 2020. It handled 114.256 passengers between the two cities in 2019. With the low cost carrier’s aim to supply passengers onto Etihad’s long haul network, the Serbian capital presents itself as a potential future route.

Skopje has been left without a nonstop service to the Gulf since the start of the pandemic, with neither Flydubai nor Qatar Airways, which previously maintained operations to the Macedonian capital, including the city in their upcoming respective winter season networks. Last year, the Macedonian government announced the launch of flights to Abu Dhabi through Wizz Air. However, the service never materialised. On the other hand, Dubai has become one of Pristina’s busiest unserved routes, with Abu Dhabi being a potential alternative.

Air Arabia has had mixed track record in the former Yugoslavia. While it has been successfully serving Sarajevo from both Sharjah and Abu Dhabi over the past few years, in 2011, the budget airline introduced a two weekly service from Dubai to Tuzla, which were cancelled a month later due to extremely poor loads. In 2012, the airline launched two weekly flights between Sharjah and Pristina. The service was also discontinued within a month. In 2019, the airline scheduled four weekly flights between Sharjah and Belgrade, which were to launch in June of that year. However, ticket sales were discontinued after four month and the route was never launched.