Interview: flydubai CEO on Boeing Delivery Delays

DALLAS — The 2024 Farnborough Airshow started with an unexpected press release from flydubai (FZ). On Monday, July 22, the airline announced that it would not receive any new Boeing 737 for the remainder of the year, affecting its expansion plans. One month later, Airways discussed the latest developments with Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO at flydubai.

“flydubai had a strong performance in the first half of 2024 and we have seen another strong demand for travel this summer as well. We are pleased to see a very successful start of operations to our newest destination in Europe with the launch of direct flights to Basel earlier this month. Unfortunately, this will be the last scheduled route launch for this year.” said Ghaith Al Ghaith. 

“flydubai has recently revised its flight schedule due to ongoing delays in aircraft delivery schedules and supply chain disruptions. To mitigate the impact during the busy travel periods, we have cancelled our upcoming route launches in the Baltics that where planned for October. We are adjusting capacity on select routes across the network that have multiple frequencies. In addition, we have temporarily suspended our flight schedule to Pisa between October 2024 and March 2025.” he continued.

The airline apologised for the inconvenience caused to customers’ travel schedules, and invited passengers to reach out directly through its contact centre, shop or travel agent. Ghaith al Ghaith confirmed “we are doing everything we can to reduce the impact of the schedule changes on our customers without having to resort back to wet leasing additional aircraft. This remains an option to explore for the future if we have to.”