Flydubai chief executive is concerned about continued delays in aircraft deliveries from US aircraft maker Boeing, leaving the world voicing frustration over supply chain problems as travel demand continues to boom. joins the chorus of top airline leaders.
Ghaith Al Ghaith told reporters at Dubai’s Arabian Travel Market that flydubai, which is operated entirely by Boeing, will continue to operate to ensure its production standards are “consistently” and “at a high level”. , said he had visited Boeing several times to tour factories and suppliers. Every Monday.
“We are definitely very concerned about the delays and all the negative stories that are going on and in the media,” he said. “But we are working closely with Boeing and they are working very hard to regain the trust of their customers, and we are one of their customers.” We visit, but we also visit our suppliers.
The company announced it carried nearly 5 million passengers from January to April 2024, an increase of 13% year-on-year.
“Since the beginning of this year, additional capacity has brought more passengers to travel, but continued delays in aircraft deliveries have slowed this growth,” said Al Ghaith. said.
The company has a total of 86 Boeing 737 aircraft, including 29 Boeing 737-800s, 54 Boeing 737 Max 8s, and 3 Boeing 737 Max 9s. Flying on Alaska Airlines’ new 737 Max 9.
The aircraft manufacturer is acquiring its airframe supplier and former subsidiary, Spirit AeroSystems. The company is trying to resolve quality control issues with its 737 Max narrowbody jet.
Flydubai’s president said he was “very positive” about Boeing’s potential acquisition of a supplier.
“Boeing’s extraordinary actions show that they don’t care about margins, not profits, as they’ve always been accused of doing.”・Gais said.
The move to acquire Spirit to take back control of the supply chain is “a very bold and good move that shows Boeing is very serious about it, and we appreciate that.” I think so,” he added.
Flydubai has announced that it will deliver six more aircraft by the end of this year, as supply chain challenges continue and delivery schedules are delayed.
The company said it is in the middle of a “multi-million dollar” project launched in January to upgrade its aircraft. Since then, eight aircraft have had their cabins completely renovated, with European seat manufacturer Recaro’s Lieflat business class seats and new economy seats installed to reflect the aircraft’s new aircraft cabin products.
All retrofitted aircraft will be equipped with in-flight entertainment and ensure “a more cohesive and consistent travel experience” for passengers across the fleet, Flydubai said. The airline will keep an all-economy configuration on some of its planes and will upgrade the seats to the new Recaro economy seats with in-flight entertainment.
Flydubai will also increase the seat pitch in business-class on some of its newer aircraft from 45 to 53 inches. This project will be start after the summer.
Flydubai aims to complete the retrofit programme before the end of the year. The project is being carried out by flydubai’s in-house maintenance team and GMR Aerotech MRO.
DWC operations
Dubai’s recently announced new passenger terminal at its second airport at Al Maktoum International – the emirate’s second hub known as Dubai World Central (DWC) – will give Flydubai “bigger scope to grow”, Mr Al Ghaith said.
The airline, which currently operates solely out of its hub in Dubai International Airport (DXB), will move to DWC in gradual phases as work on the new terminal will take 10 years to complete.
Flydubai will start to shift some of its operations to DWC in the “next couple of years”, Mr Al Ghaith said. The split operations will continue until it moves completely and permanently to DWC once the terminal is completed.