A growing group on a paper-based operation
Air Arabia's inflight systems had not kept pace with the group's growth. Bookings, catering, onboard crew activity and post-flight reconciliation ran with limited integration between them, and much of the back office was still paper-based.
The gaps had commercial consequences. Pre-orders sat outside the booking flow and were tracked manually, so orders went unfulfilled and reconciliation after the flight became an exercise in reconstruction rather than reporting. Without accurate consumption data, aircraft carried more stock than they needed, which is weight and waste on every sector. Crew spent time on paperwork that should have gone to passengers.
The harder problem was structural. Air Arabia operates from multiple hubs, each with its own catering partner, its own regulatory environment and its own commercial arrangement. Any solution had to work as well under a joint venture caterer as it did under a directly managed operation, without becoming four separate systems.
About Air Arabia & partners
As a member of the Air Arabia Group, where the group operates from key hubs across the globe, including the UAE, Morocco, Egypt, Armenia and others. The airline's strategic network expansion in 2023, introducing 26 new routes and incorporating 10 new aircraft, reflects their ambition to make air travel more accessible and efficient. With a fleet of 73 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, Air Arabia Group connects over 206 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Partnering with Omnevo, dnata and its joint venture partner Alpha Flight Services supported Air Arabia’s digital transformation, driving operational efficiency and enhancing onboard service quality.
"What we needed was a partner who understood our needs, challenges, and market demands - and could cure our pain points, improve our systems, and drive revenue. We got a digital solution suite that delivered all of that, giving us significantly more efficiency across our operations and setting solid foundations for the airline's future."
One platform, four operating models
Air Arabia and Omnevo have worked together since 2021, starting in Sharjah with dnata and joint venture partner Alpha Flight Services. The platform has since been deployed across the group's hubs, each with a different commercial structure behind it.
- Sharjah with dnata and Alpha Flight Services
- Abu Dhabi with Capital Catering
- Morocco, managed directly by Air Arabia
- Saudi Arabia, a new AOC hub
[CONFIRM: dnata, Alpha Flight Services and Capital Catering are all content to be named here]
ePOS and travel retail logistics run across every hub. The modular platform connects flight scheduling, seat mapping, pre-order catering, inflight retail and crew processes, with real-time analytics across the supply chain: consumption, sales, waste and loss, per flight. Crew work from an ePOS that handles 27 currencies, matches pre-orders to the seat map, and puts allergen and product detail in front of them at the point of sale.
The Crew Meal app is live in Sharjah and part of the Saudi Arabia rollout, with phased deployment to further bases.
Rollout was built around crew rather than software. Over 600 staff were trained in three weeks through a combination of online and in-person sessions.
Commercial priorities
- Passenger choice. Pre-order integrated into the booking flow, so demand is known before the aircraft is loaded.
- Weight and waste. Load to actual consumption instead of a standard uplift.
- Multi-hub scale. One integrated process that holds its shape across different caterers, regulators and commercial models.
Paper out, control in, across four hubs
- Four hubs live on one platform. Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, under four different operating models, running the same ePOS and logistics stack. Morocco went live in June 2026.
- 600+ crew trained in three weeks, across online and in-person delivery. Crew adoption is what determines whether onboard retail projects deliver, and it is where most of them stall.
- 27 currencies at the point of sale, with pre-orders matched to seats and allergen data available to crew instantly.
- Reconciliation by report, not reconstruction. Paper-based back-office processes removed, with real-time consumption, sales, waste and loss data per flight.
- Lighter aircraft, less waste. Loading to known demand rather than a standard uplift reduces both carried weight and discarded stock.
- Crew tooling extending across bases. The Crew Meal app is live in Sharjah and included in the Saudi Arabia rollout, with phased deployment to further bases.
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