Air Arabia Boosts Links to Kuwait

United Arab Emirates (UAE) low-cost carrier Air Arabia is to launch a third daily rotation on its Sharjah – Kuwait City route from March 25, 2012, a development that shows how clearly the airline has evolved in its almost ten year history. When the budget operator was launched in 2003 it was its goal to improve intra-GCC connectivity with daily and double daily services, so the introduction of a third service on this, one of its earlier destinations is a major endorsement for its business model.

"Kuwait was amongst the first destinations we started serving when Air Arabia took off the skies. Today, we are proud to see services increased to three daily frequencies, thus connecting our customers in UAE and Kuwait with a great frequency and un-beatable fares," said Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia. "As economic and social ties between the GCC countries grow ever closer, Air Arabia will continue to offer enormous choice for customers seeking to travel within the six countries, where air travel is a preferred mode of transport."

Air Arabia is one of eleven airlines offering flights between the UAE and Kuwait City and there is a lot of available capacity between the two countries with almost 170 weekly flights offering over 32,000 seats in each direction. The majority of these flights are between Dubai and Kuwait City and Air Arabia is the sole operator to serve Kuwait from its home Emirate of Sharjah, providing it, alongside its low-fares, with a different product offering to its rivals.

In the table below we look at Air Arabia’s share of this traffic and how it has fluctuated over the past five years as new entrants have joined the market and changed the dynamics of it set-up. Back in 2006, flights between the two countries were dominated by the traditional carriers with Kuwait Airways and Emirates Airlines each holding around a quarter of the total traffic. But in the subsequent five years their share has fallen by around a third as new entrants and low-cost operators have attempted to enter the market.

We have seen the rise of Jazeera Airways from an 11.3 % share in 2008 to a market leading 31.3 % share in 2009, only for its own financial reorganisation to see its share of the market slip. We have seen a new Kuwaiti entrant, Watiniya Airways enter the market in 2009, only to depart again in 2011. However, it is the emergence of flydubai that has resulted in the most notable changes to the marketplace with the low-cost carrier holding the largest share of the traffic in 2011 (for the nine months until September 2011) just a year after entering the market.

Air Arabia has seen its share of the traffic remain relatively stable during this period. Between 2006 and 2008 it saw a steady growth in its market share, but expansion at Jazeera Airways and the arrival of Watiniya Airways in the marketplace growing the market meant its own share almost halved. It now holds a 6.8 per cent share of the traffic and is currently ranked the fifth largest operator between the two countries.