Flydubai, Dubai’s innovative airline has played an increasingly prominent role in Dubai’s aviation sector. In the past two years it has more than doubled the number of destinations it flies to, from 25 to 52, a rate of more than one new destination per month and has increased its weekly flights to more than 1,000.
Flydubai has carried 5.1 million passengers in 2012, with 10.4 million passengers overall since its launch and has become the second largest carrier, by passenger numbers, operating out of Dubai International.
Commenting on Flydubai’s performance, chief executive officer, Ghaith Al Ghaith said: “When we launched in 2009, our objective was to make air travel more accessible and offer real value for passengers. We quickly identified and capitalised on opportunities offered by our proximity to the world’s centres of population in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, facilitating trade and tourism with the opening of new and underserved routes. We also challenged the conventional low-cost carrier approach, offering our passengers added-value services at affordable prices.
“In 2012, we carried 5.1 million passengers and with the addition of the Ha’il route in Saudi Arabia starting today, we have a network of 52 destinations served by a fleet of 28 aircraft.”
In spite of an operating environment characterised by economic uncertainty and consistently high fuel prices, total revenue for Flydubai in 2012 was Dh2,778 million ($756 million), a strong demonstration of the airline’s growth story to date. Net profit for the year was Dh151.9 million ($41.4 million) and Flydubai saw a steady upward trend in EBITDAR, reaching 24 per cent of revenue for 2012, an excellent achievement in just over three years of operations and a good indicator of the financial health of the business.
Six new aircraft will be delivered in 2013 to meet demand on busy routes and enable the airline to reach new destinations. Since the beginning of the year two new routes: Malé in the Maldives and Ha’il in Saudi Arabia have joined Flydubai’s network. Multan and Sialkot in Pakistan will commence in March.