Dubai: Air Arabia’s Jordanian subsidiary has been operating as a charter airline since the start of the month after suspending its scheduled services over a traffic rights row in the country, its chief executive said on Tuesday.
Air Arabia is locked in a traffic rights dispute with Jordanian authorities due to its subsidiary Air Arabia Jordan unable to get permission to launch new flights from the country.
Based in Amman, Air Arabia Jordan is managed and 49 per cent owned by Sharjah-based Air Arabia, the United Arab Emirates’ only listed airline. Air Arabia Jordan is a small operation with only one aircraft in its fleet, an Airbus A320.
Air Arabia chief Executive Adel al-Ali said on Tuesday that the inability to add new flights had meant that Air Arabia Jordan was no longer commercially viable in its current business model.
“Once we get the sufficient traffic rights to the places we think are viable... we would be looking forward to reinstating our business in Jordan and growing it,” he told reporters in Dubai at an industry conference.
The traffic rights issue only applies to the Jordanian subsidiary, and would have no impact on the bottom line of Air Arabia, or its ability to fly to Jordan, Ali said.
