Group Chief Executive Officer (Executive Board Member), Air Arabia Pjsc
Search every verified Adel Ali interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Adel Ali, Group CEO of Air Arabia, has discussed the airline's growth and challenges in several 2024 media appearances. Speaking on the Morning Majlis for UAE Civil Aviation Day in June 2024, Ali reflected on the history of aviation in Sharjah and expressed optimism about a planned terminal expansion at Sharjah Airport, stating it would complement Air Arabia's order of 120 aircraft scheduled for delivery between now and 2030. He also noted that the airline applies fuel hedging to manage costs and described his philosophy as prioritizing profitability over fleet size. At the IATA AGM in Dubai in June 2024, Ali highlighted new routes to Greece and Poland, as well as expansion in Morocco and Pakistan through the airline's Fly Jinnah subsidiary. He cited geopolitical challenges and supply chain issues as ongoing industry headwinds, and called for collaboration among fuel suppliers, manufacturers, governments, and regulators to advance sustainable aviation fuel. In earlier appearances, Ali described the COVID-19 pandemic as a period that forced the airline to restructure costs and preserve cash, resulting in a less than $50 million loss in 2020, and emphasized that challenges bring adaptability.
“I think we have to be realistic today that it is cheaper to fly an hour and a half on an airplane than taking a taxi from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi. So flying became not expensive. What makes it expensive unfortunately is the global taxation that put in place that a lot of airports around the world, around the region, they...”
“For Air Arabia group, what we have we do and apply what we call fuel hedging so we hedge ahead two three years before when the prices are right and that helps us to manage our cost and predict better productivity and planning of the future outcome.”
“I think the last two year was an interesting experience by hindsight. We all became much more tougher to meet the world and the life challenges but they were very difficult two years. And I think in this business you had to not knowing what the future looked like at the time, particularly in 2020, the world panicked. Y...”
“I'm a conservative person and our philosophy has been: size doesn't matter to Air Arabia Group, profitability does. So we're in a business of not how many aircraft we pile up but how much money we make.”
“we had less than 50 million dollar loss which is relatively small right for a company the size of us and and first quarter and then we did a lot of cost restructuring and we cleaned up our business i mean that it if there was a anything you can claim that it was positive uh uh in 2020 for us was the fact that we had th...”
“i think that you know there is always difficulties makes us stronger challenges brings us knowledge and if you any any leadership books one reads in the life it tells you about world is about adaptability and one thing covered toward the whole world is to adapt to things that they never had it before”
“we had less than 50 million dollar loss which is relatively small right for a company the size of us and and first quarter and then we did a lot of cost restructuring and we cleaned up our business i mean that it if there was a anything you can claim that it was positive uh uh in 2020 for us was the fact that we had th...”
“i think that you know there is always difficulties makes us stronger challenges brings us knowledge and if you any any leadership books one reads in the life it tells you about world is about adaptability and one thing covered toward the whole world is to adapt to things that they never had it before so you know we we...”
“I've got an interesting birthday coming up this year put it that way. So wouldn't say anything more about that.”
“We've had in the 15 years we've been there we had a 15 good profitable years including 2018 2018 somebody last night asked me tell me what happened with a broad capital investment and my answer was do you remember 2008 Lehman Brothers issues the idea I said it's version 2 of Lehman Brothers so basically we we lost an i...”
“I think the industry has changed and probably we we started the change back in 2003 28 October 2003 specifically because there was no confidence in something called low-cost airline people didn't understand fully Airport as I said very restrictive so the question was you know to me airports are no different than bus st...”
“I think we've had in the 15 years we've been there we had the 15 good profitable years including 2018 2018 somebody last night asked me tell me what happened with a broad capital investment and my answer was do you remember 2008 Lehman Brothers issues his idea I said it's version 2 of Lehman Brothers so basically we we...”
“As soon as we set up the airline we found the demand was far exceeding the supply and this is why we had to grow and move on.”
“I think the region is going through transformation we've seen a 10 years of success I expect that and some of the political Rumblings that going around us will calm down and in the next 5 years I can see a real success because we have got 350 million people in the Arab world all together plus Indian subcontinent of 1.5...”
talks to Breaking Travel News at IATA AGM 2024.
CEO of Air Arabia Adel Ali joins us on the show to discuss the success of UAE's aviation sector as the country is celebrating UAE ...
The two leaders discuss how they have managed their airlines through the pandemic and how they are updating their fleets and ...
A seasoned airline industry executive, Adel Ali has nurtured Air Arabia to become a highly profitable low cost airline group with activity spanning the Gulf and North Africa. The group, like all airlines, has been severely tested by the current covid pandemic but still managed to deliver two profitable quarters in the last year. Despite the ongoing crisis the airline has added aircraft to its fleet and opened up a new subsidiary in Abu Dhabi. To find out how Adel Ali is managing the crisis whilst still keeping an eye on opportunities. John Strickland, a former compatriot from an earlier care…
A seasoned airline industry executive, Adel Ali has nurtured Air Arabia to become a highly profitable low-cost airline group with activity spanning the Gulf and North Africa. The group, like all airlines, has been severely tested by the current Covid pandemic but still managed to deliver two profitable quarters in the last year. Despite the ongoing crisis the airline has added aircraft to its fleet and opened up a new subsidiary in Abu Dhabi. To find out how Adel Ali is managing the crisis whilst still keeping an eye on opportunities.
John Strickland interviewed Adel Ali, Group CEO Air Arabia at Arabian Travel Market (2019)
... ages especially to hear the early beginnings of our Arabia so Adil Ali group chief executive of Air Arabia thank you very much.
Adel Abdulla Ali, Group CEO, Air Arabia, delves into the rising popularity of the low-cost carrier model in the Middle East.
SuperReturn Middle East Website - http://www.informaglobalevents.com/yt... Adel Abdullah Ali, CEO of Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier in the MENA region, sits down with Dori Dana-Haeri at SuperReturn Middle East 2013 . Here Adel shares his advice for startup's looking for private equity funding and gives his outlook for the next 5 years.
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