Sun Air, a privately-operated Sudanese airline, has launched its new Khartoum-Abu Dhabi route, becoming the 43rd airline to operate from Abu Dhabi International Airport (Adia).

Abu Dhabi is the airline’s second destination in the UAE.

Sun Air is a young full-service airline launched in June 2008 with a fleet of one Airbus A310-300 aircraft and three Boeing 737-400 aircraft. Current routes cover a number of destinations in the Mena region.

The airline will operate a Boeing 737 aircraft with capacity for 168 economy class passengers from its new base at Abu Dhabi International Airport’s Terminal 2.

Mohammed Al Bulooki, vice president, airline marketing and aeronautical revenue at the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac), said: “Adac is pleased with the latest addition to its airline portfolio at Adia.”

“Sun Air will provide choices and more options to VFR (visiting, friends & relatives) traffic as well as to the expat Sudanese community in the UAE,” he added.

“Adia is currently undergoing a major Dh25 billion ($6.8 billion) redevelopment. The recent facelift of Terminal 2 coupled with the upgrade of facilities at Terminal 1 and the opening of our third terminal show that we are ready for increased demand by airlines for airport facilities in Abu Dhabi.”

Captain Saif M Saad Omer, chairman of Sun Air, said: “We are extremely pleased to add Abu Dhabi to our route as the Emirate represents a key market for us as we move to extend our international network.

“We anticipate steady and growing demand for our services and we are hopeful that demand will lead us to increase flight frequency in the future,” he added.

Sun Air operates three passenger flights a week, with further plans to increase capacity and operate one Airbus A310-300 to handle cargo flights between UAE and Sudan.

In-bound passenger flights will arrive in Abu Dhabi at 8 pm and out-bound flights will depart at 9 pm. Average flight time between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi is three hours. – TradeArabia News Service