Temporary Low Cost Travel Cafe

[attitudetravel]

Dubai-based legacy carrier Emirates has confirmed it will launch a subsidiary low cost carrier to compete against Air Arabia and Jazeera Airways.

Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saaed al-Maktoum told Reuters that the new budget airline will fly to destinations up to four and half hours away from Dubai.

Ghaith al-Ghaith, currently the Executive VP for Emirates' Commercial Operations will be CEO of the new airline, which will be part of the Emirates group.

Air Arabia's CEO Adel Ali responded to the announcement positively, telling Reuters: "I am pleased such an airline has seen our business model as a success and decided to do the same."

"The market is sufficiently big for all of us and it will complement us," he added.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com

[attitudetravel]

At present there are five low cost airlines operating in the Middle East region:

1) Air Arabia operates out of Sharjah Emirate in the UAE

2) Jazeera Airways operates out of Kuwait (and also out of Dubai).

3) Sama operates out of Saudi Arabia

4) Nas Air also operates out of Saudi Arabia

5) Bahrain Air operates out of Bahrain

So the new Emirates subsidiary will be the sixth LCC in the Gulf Region.

However, there are two more carriers in the UAE which qualify as low fare airlines, even if not as dedicated LCCs:

7) RAK Airways operates out of Ras al-Khaimah Emirate in the UAE

8) Kang Pacific Airlines operates out of Fujairah Emirate in the UAE

So (at last) we're beginning to see some real competition in the Gulf.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com