Air Arabia fails in Priština

Now you see it - now you don’t … Air Arabia pulls out of Priština

Air Arabia will suspend its Sharjah - Priština service from tomorrow, marking another failure for the low cost airline in the former Yugoslavia. Air Arabia launched two weekly flights to Priština just over a month ago. Services will be suspended due to low interest. In November, Air Arabia CEO, Adel Ali, said, “Ever since we began operations nine years ago, Air Arabia has prided itself on being an airline of firsts. We are pleased to become the first UAE carrier to offer a scheduled service to Kosovo. We are confident the launch of our first destination in the Balkan Peninsula will bring great benefits to the economic ties between the UAE and Kosovo and will support Air Arabia’s rapidly expanding network in Eastern Europe”. However, it now seems Mr. Ali might have been too optimistic in his expectations.

Air Arabia surprised many in 2011 when it launched flights from Dubai to Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The service proved to be unsustainable and was cancelled shortly after. Throughout 2011, some 9.000 passengers travelled between Priština and the United Arab Emirates, transiting through various airports.

Air Arabia was the third Middle East based airline to operate scheduled flights to the former Yugoslavia. FlyDubai continues to run services to Belgrade and Skopje, with two weekly flights to Sarajevo to be inaugurated in April. Qatar Airways also maintains flights to the Serbian and Croatian capitals.

Comments

  1. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 09:06

    Sarajevo is next with flydubai. 5 hour flight is big bite for small airports.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 09:42

    Why don't they try their luck in Zagreb? After all, it seems that they are picking their destinations totally randomly. Or maybe even Osijek lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 16:46

      nis, lol
      kraljevo, lol
      and why not mostar lol
      or ljubljana lol;

      but when it comes to anything that has to do something with croatia, it's lol.

      Maybie you should read more carefully right side of this page, where 45 new route launches to croatian airports are announced, and 11 new launches to all other ex-yu countries. Is that LOL, too?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 16:55

      LOL most of them are on cheap lowcost/charter carriers, so I guess a simple lol is not enough but we need to add a prefix cheap!

      The day there are all those as scheduled flights then we can talk.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 17:36

      you mean like Pegasus and Wizz who operate on those other 11 ex-yu. That is definitely not lol. it's WOW -:)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 17:40

      and just btw, I guess you meant "cheap" prefix should be added to SAS, Croatia, Eurolot, Norwegian, Thomson. That would be LOL LOL LOL

      Delete
    5. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 18:38

      Why Kraljevo?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 03:45

      Croatian airports arnt loll there ROFLMAOOOOOOOO

      Delete
    7. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 15:38

      @Anonymous Jan 06, 4:55 pm

      All flights listed here are REGULAR(SCHEDULED). At least that many charters come to/from Croatia as well, every summer season. Which mean it's impossible to talk, "the day" today, or tomorrow, to you, as you either don't know a single thing about ex-yu aviation, or deliberately misinterprete the facts.

      Delete
  3. Nikola6 January 2013 at 10:42

    my, my, why am I not surprised? it was destined to fail before it started. who wants to fly to Sharjah?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 18:34

      Or you mean who wants to fly VIA Sharjah? The airport has cheaper taxes and the airlines offers very good prices. What seems to be the problem?

      Delete
  4. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 15:53

    Everyone from Kosovo can use Skopje-Dubai route with FlyDubai :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 16:42

    Well im not suprised eather because Turkish Airlines have captured all those who fly to emirates and asia from PRN.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 17:51

    I bet flydubai will launch flights to pristine soon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 19:01

    Wow,this is so fast!
    Too big competition with TK and Pegasus...

    ReplyDelete
  8. vaso6 January 2013 at 21:00

    There are rumors that hainan airlines will start flights from beijing to belgrade via kiev. Let's wait and see what will happen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 23:19

      Wow that would be amazing! Kiev and Bejing at once!

      Delete
  9. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 21:04

    Where did you get that roumor? Pls

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 21:58

    From a friend who works at Kiev airport. Thats what he told me, and thats all I know

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 22:01

      Thanks

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 13:34

      If just 10% of rumours writen here concerning BEG was true, BEG would be better than BUD today.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous6 January 2013 at 23:31

    OT:
    I love the videos you include into your website.
    So nice...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 00:32

    I agree with some of the above comments:
    why not fly to Dubai or Abu Dhabi but to Sharjah?
    Anyway, they're not going to fly anywhere anymore..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 15:50

      Wrong. It would fail even if the destination was DXB or AUH, with P2P carrier. There is simply no market for Kosovo-UAE P2P flights. And you should know that Sharjah and Dubai are practically one city, some Dubai beaches are closer to Sharjah then to Dubai, city buses connect the two emirates every 15 minutes between several terminals, and taxi Dubai - Sharjah airport is less then 10 euro. So,it's not about Sharjah, it's about PRN, and it would be like that for any ex-yu airport (just maybie with exception of BEG and ZAG), with P2P carrier, and service. If flyDubai jumps in to PRN now, that would be the other story, which might have sucess.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 17:41

      Right about Dubai and Sharjah being the same urban area.
      You forgot to add that Prishtina and Skopje are also the same catchment area.
      Two airports for the same area...
      Now we can thank Air Arabia to proove which one of both is not sustainable for direct flights to the UAEs.
      Now its Skopjes time to show if they are better!

      Delete
  13. Anonymous7 January 2013 at 03:47

    This is great news hopefully more will follow suit!!!

    ReplyDelete

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