flydubai Helps to Stimulate Traffic on Damascus to Dubai route

Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai said: “We’ve enjoyed a very successful first 12 months of operation to Damascus and we have almost completed one year of operations to Aleppo. In less than a week we will have started flights to our third Syrian destination, Latakia, and we hope to see a similar increase in the number of passengers travelling here from Dubai as we have seen with Damascus.

“We would like to thank the Syrian authorities for their support in allowing us the permission to fly to these routes. We enjoy an excellent relationship with the authorities in Syria and are very grateful for their support and cooperation. They recognize that flydubai can help to stimulate the market and that has a knock-on benefit for all the carriers operating between Syria and the UAE. At the outset we promised we would help to increase demand, rather than take traffic away from existing carriers, and after 12 months of operation that is exactly what we’ve done. We look forward to continuing to work together with the authorities for the benefit of both our countries and the people travelling between Syria and the UAE.”

Today, during a press conference in Damascus, Mr Al Ghaith highlighted the reasons why in such a short time flydubai has been so successful. Flying in the face of the common perception that budget airlines cut costs by reducing the quality of their service, flydubai has a unique business model that focuses on reducing operational costs.

Mr. Al Ghaith explained: “Before we launched flydubai, we did extensive research into the ways we could make the company as efficient as possible. One of the first steps we took was to invest in a fleet of 50 Boeing 737-800NG aircraft. These are one of the safest, most fuel efficient aircraft flying today – and being brand new means lower maintenance and fuel costs, which results in savings that we can pass on to the customer. Ordering 50 aircraft at one time means you get a good price too!

“Each aircraft is fitted with aerodynamic winglets. These winglets save as much as 4% of the overall fuel burn, saving between 75,000 to 125,000 gallons of fuel per aircraft annually, as well as reducing emissions and noise. Again this means savings that we can pass on to our customers, as well as ensuring  flydubai’s fleet is as environmentally friendly as possible.

 Mr Al Ghaith added: “At flydubai we do not believe that customers should have to choose between price and quality. In an age where technological advances are taking place on a daily basis, the public have come to demand more, a demand that we have sought to meet through our business model.”

Light weight seats designed by Porsche and Formula One seat manufacturer Recaro, with a nifty redesign of the seat back pocket, ensure flydubai’s customers benefit from one of the largest seat pitches of any economy airline.

The option for customers to pay for food and baggage ensures passengers travelling on flydubai only pay for the services they want to use. The ticket price includes one piece of hand luggage weighing up to 10kg and all taxes and charges, but everything else is up to the customer to pay for if they want it.

“This makes our fares fairer,” explained Mr. Al Ghaith. “After all why you should pay for food if you don’t want to eat? And why should you pay for a checked bag if you only have hand luggage?”

Another marker of quality in an airline is its On-Time Performance and here again flydubai scores extremely well. With On-Time Departures of 85% over the year, flydubai is one of the most reliable airlines flying in the Middle East.

 “Changing public opinions of low cost airlines is something of an uphill battle. But we have found that our passengers love traveling with flydubai and we have many repeat customers who are testament to the quality of the service and the overall experience we offer. We are challenging the perceptions of low cost airlines and more people are travelling with us and enjoying our product every day,” Mr. Al Ghaith added.

Established in March 2008, flydubai is Dubai’s first low cost airline, and has a network of 21 destinations within a five hour flight radius of Dubai (17 of them operational). Possibly the fastest growing start-up airline ever, flydubai’s ambitions have not been exhausted yet.

“We will continue to strive to reach new heights in terms of customer service, destinations and innovations,” said Mr. Al Ghaith. “flydubai will be the first airline in the world to take delivery of a revolutionary new in-flight entertainment system in October and all aircraft delivered from then onwards will be fitted with this new system. This will offer our passengers an increased number of options and highlights our commitment to providing the best in-flight experience at the best price possible.”

The incredible expansion that the airline has achieved in just one year, highlights the significant headway flydubai has made in challenging the widespread misconceptions of low cost airlines, and flydubai will continue to meet this challenge head on by offering a friendly, welcoming on-board experience at the lowest price in the market.