Air Arabia reveals $46m loss in H1 due to flight restrictions

Air Arabia reveals $46m loss in H1 due to flight restrictions

Sharjah-based Air Arabia has announced a net loss of AED169m ($46m) for the first half of the year as the low cost carrier flies against the headwinds of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The company's turnover for the first six months of 2020 fell 53 percent to AED1.021 billion ($278m), compared to AED2.173bn ($592m) in the same period last year.

As moves were implemented by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus in March, including closing the country's borders and grounding all passenger flights, Air Arabia revealed that it served a total of 2.48m passengers from all of its four hubs in the first half of 2020 – a drop of 57 percent compared to H1 2019.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed Al Thani, chairman of Air Arabia, said: “Air Arabia started the year