Air Arabia

Air Arabia is the Middle East's original low-cost carrier, flying since 2003 from Sharjah, the quieter airport a short drive up the road from Dubai. The network runs in every direction the single-aisle range allows: the Gulf, the subcontinent, East Africa, Central Asia and a spread of European leisure cities.

There is no business class anywhere in the published fleet and no pretence of one. Every aircraft is one economy cabin from the first row to the last, so the fare buys a seat and the layout decides the rest. That makes Air Arabia one of the simplest airlines on this site to book well: find the exits and the marked legroom rows and you have seen everything the cabin has to offer.

The workhorse is the A320 in two nearly identical fits, one of them a single row shorter, both in the standard three-by-three with a pair of over-wing exit rows mid-cabin. The fuller fit places a marked legroom row just behind the exits; the shorter fit carries no such row, so its marked stretch sits at the front bulkhead instead, traded against overhead-only stowage and an armrest tray, while its exits are position-only with recline pinned on the leading rows.

The interesting aircraft is the A321LR. Air Arabia uses the long-range stretch exactly as the name promises, sending one high-density economy cabin out on sectors that flirt with widebody length. Several hours in a three-by-three rewards preparation, and this is the aircraft in the fleet where the seat homework pays most.

Expect a clean low-cost product: slimline seats at tight pitch, buy-on-board catering and paid extras for the rest. The cabin is identical from nose to tail, so the differences that matter are structural. Exit rows carry space and give up recline for it; the bulkhead row adds knee room while losing floor storage and taking its tray from the armrest.

The rear of any of these jets is the compromise zone. The last rows sit beside the toilets and the rear galley, pick up trolley and door noise through the flight and step off last. On a ninety-minute hop that is trivia; on the long sectors the LR flies, it is the difference between arriving rested and arriving worn.

On the A320s, take the exit band if you want space and can live without recline, or the marked row behind it on the fuller fit, which keeps the seatback working. Confirm which fit is flying before paying, because on the shorter version that row behind the exits is an ordinary seat and the smart fallback is a window or aisle ahead of the wing.

The A321LR deserves extra care. Its rear doors carry the second marked legroom cluster, and the seats around them need reading one by one: door structure at some feet, a window pair with no glass at all and a few seats trimmed slimmer than standard. On a long day or night in one class, sit forward, check the notes on anything beside the doors and leave the last rows to the unlucky.