DUBAI: Whereas travelers within the Middle East are still dealing with some restrictions and regional airlines are suffering financially on account of the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Abu Dhabi is bucking the pattern and is about to launch a new low-cost service in January and is even eying Saudi Arabia as a part of its bold expansion plans.
Again in March at the peak of the pandemic, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – predicted that the global aviation sector would need $200 billion of state help or only about 30 of the more than 700 airlines around the globe would survive.
It was right now that the team at Wizz Air Abu Dhabi had been going by means of the paperwork to arrange the airline they announced in December 2019. As soon as the rubber stamp was acquired in October, the world was still dealing with numerous restrictions and the IATA was simply as pessimistic.
In November, the affiliation stated the whole web loss for the global aviation sector would quantity to $118.5 billion in 2020 and restoration wouldn’t be seen till the second half of 2021.
Within the Middle East, passenger demand fell by 73 % and regional airways are prone to file losses of $7.1 billion, the IATA added.
Regardless of all this, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi government and Switzerland-headquartered Wizz Air Holdings plc, will launch its inaugural flight to Athens on Jan. 15, with Thessaloniki beginning on Feb. 4, and flights costing from 129 Emirati dirhams ($35).
“The waiting is nearly over for Abu Dhabi fans of our ultra-low fare airline,” stated Kees Van Schaick, managing director of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi.
The airline already has planned so as to add more routes, with flights to Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, Georgia, and Ukraine set to be launched in due course.
“Our network from Abu Dhabi will broaden quickly as locations on our planned network are added to the ‘green international locations’ list. Due to the help of the government and our local business partners in Abu Dhabi, we’re totally ready. We’ve got the plane, we’ve got the crew, we’ve got the partners, and we’re able to fly,” Van Schaick added.
The fledgling airline presently has three leased Airbus A321 neo (new engine option) plane amongst its fleet, but because the routes increase, it plans to add more before the end of the yr.
“We’ve got today three Airbus A321, with a seat count of 239 on one aircraft. The first one will begin to fly to Greece. Sadly, we won’t be using from the start all three planes to the maximum extent as a result of we merely have no routes without guaranteeing sufficient,” Van Schaick stated.
“But again, we’re confident that may happen not that long from now. We’ve got the three aircraft in the UAE, and, if all goes according to the plan, we will likely be adding the plane and naturally, we are going to do so properly.
“We’ll solely do so after we make certain returns with them. However, that may be 4 to 6 plane within the next 12 months, that ought to be achievable.”
The Dutchman wouldn’t reveal when the airline aims to become profitable or break-even, however, he did say that Saudi Arabia was amongst its target markets, with its route map extending to these inside 5 hours flying from the UAE capital.
“We very a lot look ahead to working in Saudi. When? I can’t speculate, however, we very very like to function in Saudi. To and from Saudi we will stimulate demand for our sort of air visitors and that will likely be good for Saudi and good for the UAE,” he stated.
On account of the COVID-19 pandemic, many corporations have seen further prices in terms of increased cleansing and restricted operations and Van Schaick stated the new Abu Dhabi airline was no different.
“Sure, that brings further costs due to the cleansing, simply stated, which is more frequent. Also, boarding processes could take a bit longer than regular. We’re, in fact, turning around our plane in a short time, but as soon as we land at the destination, the boarding process takes longer, which means extra time on the ground earlier than we flip around and fly again.
“That brings a sure price to the system, but there are no other means of doing it like this. We see the additional price, but it’s a part of going into the business,” he added.
