Air Arabia clinches top spot in list of 100 best carriers in world

The UAE’s low-cost carrier, Air Arabia, has for the first time been ranked number one among the world’s top 100 airlines in a list based entirely on financial and performance data. Airfinance Journal’s annual list of top 100 global airlines assesses operational and financial parameters, including total revenue, net income, EBITDA margins, fixed charges, liquidity, leverage, fleet size and average age of fleet. “The fact that Air Arabia managed this year to rank first in the world underlines the strong fundamentals of our organsiation, and our commitment to operational excellence,” said Adel Al Ali, group CEO of Air Arabia. The list measured the financial and performance metrics of all 100 airlines’ last twelve-month (LTM) figures from 31 March 2019 to 31 March 2020. Next year’s list is likely to look very different as the financial performance of airlines around the world has crashed amid the Covid-19 crisis. Low-cost carriers, however, have fared better than most airlines and have largely managed to maintain a degree of liquidity and strong bottom line. Ali told Aviation Business that while the crisis has been “difficult” for Air Arabia, he thinks the airline is in a much better position than most legacy carriers. He is also confident that airlines in the UAE will be among the first to recover due to the simple fact that the population has a need to travel in and out of the country constantly.<br/>