Air Arabia’s strong financial performance in the second quarter of the year, with a 21 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit, appears to indicate a cost control measures-led strategy is helping defend the low-cost carrier from headwinds arising from the region’s geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties.

Similarly, Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways posted 23 per cent net profit growth in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the same period last year. The carrier attributed its positive second-quarter performance to higher utilisation and improved network planning, among others.

The carriers’ latest financial results are commendable given the slowing passenger demand in the region since the start of the year, and for Air Arabia, its subdued performance in 2016.

Measured by revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), airline passenger traffic in the Middle East grew by just 2.1 per cent year-on-year in June, the weakest of six regions monitored by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

For Air Arabia, offering cheap flights to new short-haul tourist destinations, particularly in Central Asia, to compensate for conflict-ridden cities they could not fly into and the cost of longer flight routes to bypass no-fly zones, appears to be a clever strategy that could keep it in good stead for the rest of the year.

The low-cost carriers’ positive performance at a difficult period in global aviation could be indicative, among other things, of passengers’ preference to spend less rather than forego travelling altogether.

It is also likely the recent comprehensive code-sharing agreement between Dubai’s Emirates airline and low-cost carrier Flydubai is meant to balance the potential impact of slowing demand for luxury travel and rising demand for budget flights on both airlines, which are owned by the same shareholders.