Air Arabia airlines
Air Arabia airlinesReuters

Air Arabia, the largest low-cost carrier in the West Asia and North Africa region, on Wednesday said it is offering Indian passengers the option of paying for tickets in monthly instalments. The EMI option would allow travellers to plan their expenses and allow them to travel to various destinations, which are offered by the Air Arabia network.

"Air Arabia announces the launch of comprehensive Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) payment options for Indian travellers," the airline said in a statement. The EMI facility is offered to credit card holders of eight banks, namely ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC and Central Bank of India.

Passengers wishing to avail the EMI payment option have to first select the flight and reserve the tickets on the website, and then opt for the 'Pay with EMI' tab on the payment page and finally, choose their preferred bank. Then the interface would display a choice of duration for the EMI, along with the break-up amount, which would be billed to the credit card statement every month.

Air Arabia currently operates 115 weekly flights from its base in Sharjah to 13 Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Goa, Jaipur, Kochi, Nagpur, Coimbatore, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.

Air Arabia, which is listed on the Dubai Financial Market, began operations in October 2003. It has a fleet size of 44 Airbus A-320 aircraft. The airline operates on 120 routes from five hubs in the UAE, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan.