Saturday, August 27, 2011

Flydubai gets 19th aircraft

DUBAI — Flydubai has received its eighth aircraft in 2011, bringing its total to 19 overall. The latest aircraft delivery will help the airline to launch more flight operations to the Russian market next month.

The latest Boeing 737-800 new generation fleet addition arrived on schedule from the Boeing factory in Seattle and has gone straight into service across the airline’s 38 operational destinations.

“This latest aircraft has arrived in Dubai at an opportune time. As we prepare for the busy Eid holiday, flydubai will be adding more flights to its most popular destinations, so the aircraft has gone straight into service to aid this growth,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer of flydubai, said in an e-mailed statement to Khaleej Times.

Representing an investment of $80 million, the aircraft is the latest from flydubai’s 50-aircraft order made at the 2008 Farnborough Airshow to come off the production line.It is the 12th in the fleet to feature Boeing’s new sky interior and the revolutionary in-flight entertainment system by Lumexis.

“As the fastest growing start-up in the world, flydubai continues to set milestones on the ground as well as in the air. With the majority of our aircraft now fitted with in-flight entertainment, more passengers can enjoy a first-class on board experience with movies screened through the latest technology,” Al Ghaith said.

Established in March 2008, flydubai has one of the highest aircraft utilisation figures in the industry due to its rapidly developing global reach. The expansion of its fleet has been vital to the low-cost carrier’s growth and will further allow the pioneering airline to provide its passengers with the friendly and reliable service they have come to expect.

“It is clear that flydubai is not only happy with the Boeing 737-800 given that it has thrown the newest airplane straight into routine operations across its route network, but it also demonstrates the insatiable demand base that the airline is striving to accommodate,” Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at FBE Aerospace London, told Khaleej Times. In reply to a question about the flydubai route expansion in Russia next month, Ahmad said the airline will instantly tap into a huge pool of demand not yet serviced by full service airlines.

“By adding more routes in Russia, flydubai will instantly tap into a huge pool of demand not yet serviced by full service airlines and it will make it competitively and financially difficult for other airlines to charge more than flydubai,” he said.

Flydubai targets destinations within a 4.5 hour flight-radius of Dubai, and currently has operations to 38 cities, with five additional routes — Ufa and Kazan in Russia as well as Ukrainian destinations Kiev, Donetsk and Kharkov — are scheduled to commence in September 2011.

“With the 737-800 having a bigger range capability in contrast to the rival A320-200, flydubai is leveraging this strength to push its expansion into Russia — a market that today has very little in the way of either low-cost airline competition and even lower connections to the GCC region,” he said.

Ahmad said the Dubai-based low-cost airline is all set to dominate the market during the next couple of years.

“Flydubai’s incessant growth looks like to continue and rightfully so. With nearly 40 destinations under its belt in just two years, it is not inconceivable for flydubai to be flying to 80 or 90 destinations within the next two to the three years. This is truly phenomenal growth and with over two billion people, or over a third of the Earth’s population, within five flight hours of Dubai, it is fair to surmise that flydubai’s route growth will be matched with fleet growth,” he said.

“Flydubai is making history each day with its unprecedented growth and its seemingly limitless ambitions. As the world’s fastest growing low cost airline, flydubai is flying high and there’s nothing on the horizon that indicates that they should take the foot off the gas pedal,” Ahmad concluded.

Source:  http://www.khaleejtimes.com

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