Air Arabia takes delivery of fourth A320 in 2011

Air Arabia, the Sharjah-based low cost carrier, said on Wednesday it has received its fourth aircraft of the year from Airbus. The delivery of the latest A320, which the airline said was on time, brings its global operating fleet to 29 aircraft. Its arrival marks the delivery of six out of 44 A320 aircraft ordered by Air Arabia back in 2007, and the airline said it expects to receive two more A320s by the end of 2011. The new aircraft has gone straight into service across Air Arabia's 67 destination network served from the carrier main hubs in UAE, Morocco and Egypt, the carrier said in a statement. The delivery of the 44 new aircraft will be completed by 2016, and will more than double the size of Air Arabia's fleet, it added. Adel Ali, group chief executive officer at Air Arabia, said: "As we continue to expand our fleet, we look forward to growing our operations across the Pan Arab, Europe and Africa region delivering great service and exceptional value to more and more customers around the world." Air Arabia said last month it was launching direct flights to two new destinations in Ukraine this month. The new services to Kharkiv and Donestsk expanded the airline's presence to three major cities in the country.