Air Arabia

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Air Arabia

IATA G9	ICAO ABY	Callsign ARABIA
Founded		February 3, 2003
Hubs		Sharjah International Airport
Alliance		Arab Air Carriers Organization
Fleet size		8
Destinations		32
Headquarters		Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Key people		Adel Ali (CEO)
Website: http://www.airarabia.com

Air Arabia A320

Air Arabia is a low-cost airline based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. It operates scheduled services throughout the Middle East and to the Indian subcontinent. Its main base is Sharjah International Airport. Air Arabia is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 Incidents
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Air Arabia was established on February 3, 2003 and started operations on October 29, 2003. Air Arabia can be safely said to be the first budget airline in the Middle East region. It was formed by Amiri decree issued by Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohamed Al Qassimi. It is owned by Sharjah Civil Aviation Department (50%), Sharjah Airport International Free Trade Zone Authority (SAIF Zone) (10%), and other founders include Sharjah based and Bahrain based strategic investors (40%).

[edit] Destinations

Air Arabia fly to the following destinations^[1], they will also begin services to Pakistan from the summer of 2007.

[edit] Africa

[edit] Asia

[edit] South Asia

[edit] India

Ahmedabad (Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport) [starts 3 April 2007]
Chennai (Chennai International Airport)
Jaipur (Jaipur Airport)
Kochi (Cochin International Airport)
Mumbai (Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport)
Nagpur (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport)
Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum International Airport)

[edit] Middle East

[edit] Fleet

The Air Arabia fleet consists of the following aircraft as of December 2006:^[2]

**Air Arabia Fleet**
Aircraft	Total	Passengers (Economy)	Notes
Airbus A320-200	8

[edit] Incidents

A passenger on board an Air Arabia flight to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, March 18,2007 tried to force his way into the cockpit of the plane, forcing it to return to Sharjah International Airport,The Sri Lankan passenger became violent towards other travellers and crew shortly after take-off and then tried to open the cockpit door. Police boarded the plane at Sharjah and arrested the man.