February 26: Emirati low-cost airline, Air Arabia is planning to add up more routes and flights exchange with Indian carrier Spicejet from the Ras Al Khaimah International Airport.
As of now, the passengers travelling from RAK International airport to Delhi via Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet are able to fly to several destinations using the domestic services of the airline. The destinations are limited to some states like Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur and Kozhikode.
Other than these, the carrier also operates direct flights between UAE and as many as 7 India cities. However, the airline plans to add more in order to improve the connectivity further.
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As it was expected that the flight resumption would help boost connectivity, the airport resumed its flight exchange in October last in an attempt for the emirate to position itself as a major tourist hub within the United Arab Emirates.
Sharing his take over the plan in the pipeline, Sanjay Khanna, serving as CEO of RAK International Airport quoted, “We expect even more Indian destinations to be added to SpiceJet’s direct service from Ras Al Khaimah within the coming months and years. With these additions from the various carriers, we fully anticipate reaching our pre-COVID-19 level passenger throughput by the end of 2021.”
The behind such tilt towards India is simplistic. India is represented as one of the largest aviation markets in the UAE. Numerically to explain this, in 2020 when high tensions were triggered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as many as 4 million passengers had flown from Dubai tppo several Indian cities. Explaining the situation, Khanna added, “At present, India represents our largest market for travellers and RAK Airport aims to enhance the links between nearly 3.5 million Indian nationals living in the UAE.”
