The UAE operator Air Arabia has announced the first-ever passenger service from Sharjah to the UK. Starting in March, it’ll begin a double-daily operation from the airport—which is located close to the ever-popular Dubai—to Gatwick. Earlier this month, multiple new airlines confirmed Gatwick service.

The brand-new route was announced on November 24. It was not massively surprising. According to ACL, the slot allocation organization, Air Arabia had obtained slots for a double-daily Gatwick service. Of course, many airlines obtain them only to hand them back as they decide not to use them. Air Arabia won’t be one of them. The new service is bound to make my celebratory Weekly Routes article (see the most recent edition).

Air Arabia From Sharjah To Gatwick

The UAE carrier will take off for Gatwick on March 29. That is when northern airlines switch to summer schedules based on IATA slot seasons. Commencing with a double-daily service is certainly bullish. Then again, Air Arabia has existed for over 20 years. And, when all passenger carriers are included, Air Arabia will provide only two of the up to 23 daily services from the UAE to London next summer. Up to 18 of these will be from Sharjah/Dubai.

Flights will be timed at 7h 50m to the UK’s second-busiest airport. It will, in this sense, become Air Arabia’s new longest route. It will exceed the maximum block time of what was number one, Kuala Lumpur back to Sharjah, by ten minutes. However, on a great circle distance basis, Gatwick flights will cover marginally less distance than those to the Malaysian capital. Passengers may stream entertainment to their own devices and purchase food, drink, and checked baggage.

The pretty high-capacity 215-seat Airbus A321LR will be deployed. According to ch-aviation, it has six frames, each with a single-class layout (3-3; mainly 30.5″ pitch, but emergency exit row seats are at 35″). Air Arabia is, after all, a low-cost carrier, which makes its new, long service even more intriguing.

Passengers Can Connect To Numerous Cities Via Sharjah

As Sharjah is right next to Dubai, Air Arabia will provide a nonstop budget offering to reach that ever-popular city. After all, in the 12 months to September 2025, booking data shows that almost 1.9 million round-trip local passengers traveled to/from there (5,200 daily). They did not connect elsewhere. It is an enormous market.

Passengers will be able to connect to many places across the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia via Sharjah. This is partly why it will start with a double-daily service. According to an analysis of its April schedule, many cities will connect on a two-way basis with a competitive schedule in both directions.

Interestingly, India does not feature heavily. While one direction usually has a very quick connection time, the other direction typically requires a much longer wait. For example, passengers flying from London to Kochi (a market with 315,000+ local passengers) have a 90-minute wait in Sharjah, but over six hours on the way back. Perhaps this is fortunate. After all, India is a high-volume but low-yielding market for the UK, and Air Arabia only has 215-seat aircraft to fill. As such, it probably won’t need to disproportionately rely on such traffic, which should help with performance.

Europe Is A Growing Part Of Air Arabia’s Network

The Air Arabia Group consists of various units. Sticking with its original Sharjah airline shows that Europe is becoming an increasingly important continent for its network development. This is based on its existing LRs, with its first A321XLR due to be delivered in 2027. Expect many new routes there.

On December 15, the first Sharjah-Munich service will begin (daily). Prague and Warsaw Modlin will follow five days later (both daily), along with Gatwick in March (two daily). They will supplement Air Arabia’s multiple other European airports, including Warsaw Chopin. That’s right: the airline will now fly to both of the Polish capital’s airports.