Flydubai's chief executive is concerned about the continued aircraft delivery delays by US plane maker Boeing, joining a chorus of global airline bosses expressing frustration about supply chain woes during a continuing boom in travel demand.
Flydubai, an all-Boeing fleet operator, has conducted several visits to inspect Boeing's plants and its suppliers to make sure production standards are "consistently" at a "high level", Ghaith Al Ghaith told reporters at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Monday.
"We are definitely very concerned about the delays and all the negative issues that are in the pipeline or in the media," he said. "But we work closely with Boeing, they work very hard to regain the trust of the customers and we are one of their customers.
"We have teams that interact with Boeing from the highest level to the lowest level, including visiting, not only their plants, but we also visit the suppliers."
Flydubai has grown its network with the addition of five new destinations since the start of 2024 with operations to Al Jouf, Langkawi, Mombasa, Penang and the Red Sea.
The airline said it carried nearly five million passengers between January and April 2024, a 13 per cent increase year-on-year.
"The added capacity has seen more passengers travel with us since the beginning of this year, even though this growth has been dampened by the ongoing delays in aircraft deliveries," Mr Al Ghaith said.
The airline has a fleet of 86 Boeing 737 aircraft: 29 Boeing 737-800s, 54 Boeing 737 Max 8s and 3 Boeing 737 Max 9s.
Boeing has been grappling with a major crisis that erupted in January after a mid-air panel blowout on a new Alaska Airline 737 Max 9.
The plane maker is seeking to buy Spirit AeroSystems, its fuselage supplier and former subsidiary, as it seeks to address quality control issues on its 737 Max narrow-body jets.
The Flydubai chief said Boeing's potential acquisition of its supplier is "very positive".
"This particular action by Boeing shows that they care and it is not, as they had always been blamed, that they look at the margin and then they look at the profit," Mr Al Ghaith said.
The move to buy Spirit to regain control of the supply chain is "a very bold, good commitment from Boeing to show that they are very serious about this. I think, we value that", he added.
Flydubai said it expects six more aircraft to be delivered by the end of this year amid ongoing challenges in supply chain and delays in its delivery schedule.
The airline said it is in the midst of a "multimillion-dollar" project that it launched in January to retrofit its planes. Since then, eight aircraft have had a full cabin refresh with the installation of lie-flat business-class seats and the new economy seats from European seat-maker Recaro that mirror the cabin product on its newer planes in the fleet.
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.
DXB will be shut down once all its passenger operations have completed the transition to DWC.
During the heavy rain that fell across the country in April forcing airlines to cancel or postpone flights, Flydubai sustained only "minimal" financial losses as two thirds of its affected passengers opted to rebook their flights, Mr Al Ghaith said.
Ready Player One
Dir: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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SPECS
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Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
WHEN TO GO:
September to November or March to May; this is when visitors are most likely to see what they’ve come for.
WHERE TO STAY:
Meghauli Serai, A Taj Safari - Chitwan National Park resort (tajhotels.com) is a one-hour drive from Bharatpur Airport with stays costing from Dh1,396 per night, including taxes and breakfast. Return airport transfers cost from Dh661.
HOW TO GET THERE:
Etihad Airways regularly flies from Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu from around Dh1,500 per person return, including taxes. Buddha Air (buddhaair.com) and Yeti Airlines (yetiairlines.com) fly from Kathmandu to Bharatpur several times a day from about Dh660 return and the flight takes just 20 minutes. Driving is possible but the roads are hilly which means it will take you five or six hours to travel 148 kilometres.
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
MATCH INFO
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium, Malayisa
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia on October 10
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The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
match info
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 37')
Atletico Madrid 1 (Costa 39')
Man of the match Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao)
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
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if you go
The flights
Air France offer flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Cayenne, connecting in Paris from Dh7,300.
The tour
Cox & Kings (coxandkings.com) has a 14-night Hidden Guianas tour of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It includes accommodation, domestic flights, transfers, a local tour manager and guided sightseeing. Contact for price.
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
