Air Arabia

As of October 2026 – Besides Emirates, Etihad and flydubai there is a fourth airline in the Emirates that is becoming ever more important for spotters: Air Arabia of Sharjah. It is considered the first low-cost airline of the Arab world, flies only Airbus aircraft of the A320 family and has offshoots in several countries. Since December 2025 it has landed daily in Munich, with Frankfurt and Düsseldorf announced. This page shows you the codes, fleet, subsidiaries and the features by which you can place Air Arabia with confidence.

Air Arabia at a glance

Air Arabia is a low-cost airline from the Emirate of Sharjah, which borders Dubai directly. It was founded in February 2003 by decree of the ruler of Sharjah and began flight operations in October 2003. The airline was designed for low costs from the start: a uniform fleet, quick turnaround times, onboard food only for a fee. By its own account it was thereby the first airline of this kind in the Middle East.

The concept paid off early. By its own account Air Arabia was already in the black in its first year, and the IPO on the Dubai Financial Market followed in 2007. Today the airline has been profitable for years. For 2025 it reported a record profit of about 1.8 billion dirhams before tax, 21.8 million passengers and a load factor of 85 percent. In the same year 30 new routes were added; according to the airline, the group’s network thus comprised 219 destinations.

Its headquarters and main base is Sharjah International Airport (SHJ), where the airline has its head office right on the airport grounds. There is also a base in Ras al-Khaimah in the north of the Emirates. Like flydubai, Air Arabia works through a hub: many passengers change planes in Sharjah, for example from Europe to India, Pakistan or East Africa.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code G9: appears in the flight number, so on the display board, ticket and in most schedules.
• ICAO code ABY: appears in the flight plan filed with air traffic control and on ADS-B trackers.
• Callsign ARABIA: this is how the crew calls in on the radio.

Unlike with many airlines, the ICAO code cannot be derived directly from the name: ABY instead of, say, “AAR”. Remember it when you look for Air Arabia on the tracker. And as with Ryanair, the Air Arabia brand appears on several companies, each of which uses its own codes. What is behind IATA and ICAO identifiers is explained in the post on IATA and ICAO codes.

One brand, several airlines: the Air Arabia group

Air Arabia grew beyond the Emirates early on. Instead of flying all routes itself, the airline founded joint ventures with local partners in other countries. For spotters that means: same look, but different codes, registrations and home airports.

Company	Country	Base	Codes	Note
Air Arabia	UAE	Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah	G9 / ABY	Parent company, since 2003
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi	UAE	Abu Dhabi	3L / ADY	Since 2020, founded together with the Etihad group
Air Arabia Egypt	Egypt	Alexandria (Borg el-Arab)	E5 / RBG	Flight operations since 2010
Air Arabia Maroc	Morocco	Casablanca	own codes	Since 2009, flies a lot to Europe
Fly Jinnah	Pakistan	Karachi	own codes	Founded in 2021, flight operations since 2022, partner is the Lakson Group

Two former offshoots are now history: Air Arabia Jordan (2015 to 2018, created from a stake in Petra Airlines) and Fly Arna in Armenia, which ceased operations in 2024.

For you as a spotter in Central Europe, Air Arabia Maroc is especially interesting. It connects Morocco with numerous cities in Europe and therefore shows up at airports that the parent company from Sharjah does not serve at all. An Air Arabia jet in Western Europe therefore often comes from Casablanca, not from the Emirates. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi also deserves a look of its own, because it brings the brand to the capital of the Emirates – right next to Etihad.

The fleet: only the Airbus A320 family

From day one Air Arabia has relied on a single aircraft-type building-block system: the A320 family from Airbus. At the end of 2025 the fleet consisted, according to the airline, of 90 aircraft of the types A320 and A321, not counting short-term leased seasonal aircraft. In 2025 alone nine new aircraft were added, including five A320neos.

Type	Role at Air Arabia	Spotter note
Airbus A320 (ceo)	Backbone of the fleet since 2003	Smaller engines, Sharklets or classic wingtip fences
Airbus A320neo	New standard aircraft, including on Munich	Much larger engines, always with Sharklets
Airbus A321 (ceo)	More seats on high-demand routes	Longer fuselage, extra doors ahead of and behind the wing
Airbus A321neo / A321LR	Longer routes, in service since 2019	LR has greater range, outwardly hard to tell from the A321neo
Airbus A321XLR	20 ordered, first expected from 2027	Not yet in service

In November 2019 Air Arabia ordered 120 aircraft of the A320neo family at the Dubai Airshow: 73 A320neos, 27 A321neos and 20 A321XLRs. Deliveries have been delayed; by now the first neo jets from this order are joining the fleet. Air Arabia has flown the A321LR since 2019 – with it the airline can fly longer routes without a stopover.

ceo or neo? How to tell the generations apart

Because Air Arabia flies both generations side by side, telling them apart is the real collector’s task. The livery does not help you with that – engines and fuselage length do.

Whether it is an A320 or A321, you can tell by fuselage length and the doors: the A321 has an extra pair of large doors ahead of and behind the wing, while the A320 has small emergency exits over the wing instead. You will find a detailed guide in the posts A320neo or ceo? and How to tell the A318 through A321 apart.

How to recognize Air Arabia

For its 15th birthday in October 2018 Air Arabia refreshed its look. The well-known seagull was kept as a symbol but modernized and drawn with wings spread wider. You will find it on the tail and the engines. On the fuselage are the air arabia titles in lowercase, and red is the defining brand color.

Because the subsidiaries wear almost the same livery, a photo of the tail is not enough for a clean assignment. Also watch the registration: the aircraft of the parent company and of Air Arabia Abu Dhabi are registered in the Emirates and carry A6-, while the offshoots in Egypt and Morocco carry the registrations of their countries. How registrations are built is explained in the post Understanding aircraft registrations.

Air Arabia in Germany and Central Europe

For a long time Air Arabia was a travel airline for German spotters. That has changed. On December 15, 2025, the first flight from Sharjah landed in Munich; since then Air Arabia has flown the route daily with the A320neo. For December 2026 the airline has announced two more German destinations: Frankfurt from December 15 and Düsseldorf from December 16, each daily.

The network from Sharjah is also growing in the rest of Europe. According to Air Arabia it includes Vienna, Prague, Milan-Bergamo, Athens, Rome, Krakow, Warsaw and London-Gatwick. Gdańsk and Katowice in Poland are added too. Many routes are aimed at vacationers heading to the Emirates and at connecting passengers toward Asia and Africa.

Spotting tips

In Munich the G9 flight is scheduled daily, but departure times vary between midday and evening depending on the day of the week. A good spot is the Munich Airport visitors’ hill; more spots and tips are collected in the Munich spotting guide. In Frankfurt the Zeppelinheim viewing platform is a good option, in Düsseldorf the observation deck. In Austria the Vienna Airport spotters’ hill is a proven address.

If you want to catch Air Arabia at home, you should check the runway configuration beforehand. A single daily flight is easily missed if you are standing on the wrong side of the runway. For evening arrivals in winter the light also gets scarce – then it is better to plan for the departure, if that takes place in daylight.

In the Emirates themselves, Sharjah is the airline’s home. Strict rules apply there, however, for photographing at airports. Before you unpack your camera, read the post Photographing at airports in the UAE and the guide Plane spotting in Dubai.

Air Arabia compared

In the Middle East Air Arabia is not alone. flydubai from the neighboring emirate relies on the Boeing 737, Air Arabia on Airbus – that is the quickest difference at the spot. Other low-cost airlines of the region are Jazeera Airways from Kuwait and flynas from Saudi Arabia, which also operate Airbus narrowbody jets. From Europe, Wizz Air and Pegasus also fly to the Gulf region. How the business model of these airlines works is explained in the post How low-cost carriers work.

Air Arabia has little in common with the big network airlines Emirates and Etihad: there widebody jets like the A380, 777 and 787 dominate, while Air Arabia flies only narrowbody aircraft. If you are interested in the strategy of the Gulf airlines, you will find the background in the article on the business model of the Gulf airlines.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing Air Arabia with flydubai – Air Arabia flies Airbus from Sharjah, flydubai Boeing 737s from Dubai.
• Taking every seagull for Sharjah – Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Egypt and Maroc also fly in a similar livery.
• Guessing the ICAO code – it is ABY, not AAR or ARB.
• Taking the A321LR for a regular A321neo – outwardly hard to tell apart; extra tanks only show in the data.
• Lumping the A320 and A320neo together – engine size decides, not the livery.
• Taking Air Arabia for a network airline – there is no alliance and no widebody jets.

Conclusion

Air Arabia is the Emirates’ low-cost airline that you can now photograph in Germany without a long-haul trip. Behind the seagull are several companies in several countries, two generations of the A320 family and, from 2027, probably the A321XLR as well. If you note the ICAO code and registration and watch the engines, you turn an Air Arabia sighting into a clean logbook entry.