Middle East LCC Air Arabia is largely limiting its operations from its Jordanian hub to charter flights, after being unable to secure enough traffic rights to allow it to expand its scheduled services.

The Sharjah-based LCC started services from the Jordanian capital, Amman, in 2015 after it set up a joint venture with local carrier Petra Airways, operating under the title Air Arabia Jordan. The airline bases two A320s in Amman.

“We still do scheduled [flights] but it’s very small,” said Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali. “We’ve not been able to secure sufficient traffic rights that we want to improve the business.”

Scheduled services from Amman at present are mainly to Egyptian tourist resort Sharm El-Sheikh and Saudi Arabia, he said. Air Arabia’s website route map shows services from Amman to Medinah and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Sharm El Sheikh, Alexandria (Egypt), Antalya (Turkey) and Sharjah.

However, “there seems to be sufficient demand for charters,” Ali said, noting that would continue to be the main activity out of the Jordanian capital until more scheduled rights could be secured. Charter operations were being undertaken to surrounding countries and to Europe.Air Arabia has additional hubs in Alexandria; Casablanca, Morocco; and Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Meanwhile, the LCC’s incoming fleet of Airbus A321neoLR will be used potentially to fly as far as southeast Asia and China, he added.

The carrier signed a lease for six of the type with US-based Air Lease Corporation on the sidelines of last month’s Dubai Airshow. They will start to enter service in 2019 and will join Air Arabia’s existing fleet of 50 A320s.

The new A321s are required for extra capacity and to cope with some high-density routes to the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere. The A321s’ range will also allow them to operate into areas such as southern Africa, a region from which demand is increasing, and Eastern Europe.

“More important for us, I think, is the Indian sub-continent,” said Ali. “There are some routes that we fly at the moment at maximum capacity and the A321 will give us a good 20% increase in that capacity.”

Alan Dron alandron@adepteditorial.com