Flydubai has asked staff furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic last year to return to work from June amid rising optimism about a rebound in summer travel.
The airline wrote to affected workers last week and gave them “a schedule to start coming back", chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith told aviation consultant John Strickland during an online session at the Arabian Travel Market conference on Tuesday.
"[These are] all the people who were on unpaid leave,” he said. “That was a huge satisfaction from our side that we can bring back people.”
The Covid-19 pandemic hit the aviation industry hard, forcing airlines around the world to preserve cash by grounding aircraft and laying off or furloughing employees.
Flydubai had offered its staff the option of either unpaid leave or redundancy. About 97 per cent of affected staff chose to go on unpaid leave, said Mr Al Ghaith.
“I understand part of it is because people have no other choice... but it was a commitment from the people that they wanted to stick with the airline and we stuck with them,” he said.
In its 2020 annual earnings report, flydubai said 1,092 of its 3,796 workers went on unpaid or voluntary leave. The airline's workforce shrank by 3.2 per cent last year, compared with the previous year, it said.
The state-owned airline worked with regulatory authorities and partners to support staff on unpaid leave, said Mr Al Ghaith.
It teamed up with banks to provide relief such as loan repayment holidays to its affected employees.
“We tried to work out some of their problems because ... for a lot of people who work for us, the UAE is their second home,” he said.
“The feedback we got during this terrible time of how people valued what we have done was so encouraging. That made us so proud that we can do even more. This is a very big exercise to build people’s loyalty to the brand.”
Flydubai is upbeat about this year’s summer travel period. Before flights to India, Pakistan and Nepal were halted, the airline had reached more than 65 per cent of its pre-crisis capacity, said Mr Al Ghaith.
“We are very optimistic that with the summer coming up, things ... will be even better,” he said, noting this would depend on the travel restrictions of other countries.
“The biggest question will be which countries will be open. We are open here and ready for business in the UAE and the airline is ready.”
The budget airline has already revealed new summer routes to tap into pent-up travel demand.
It said yesterday that it will start flying to the Greek islands of Santorini and Mykonos, Bodrum and Trabzon in Turkey, Naples in Italy and Salzburg in Austria in the next two months.
Flydubai is currently using 10 of its 14 Boeing 737 Max aircraft after the UAE aviation regulator approved the jet’s return to the skies in January.
“We have opened new destinations ... that probably we would have not flown to, but because these are opportunities presented to us [through the 737 Max’s return]. There will be more of these opportunities,” said Mr Al Ghaith.
He said there is “huge potential” to deepen its existing partnership with sister company Emirates.
“With Emirates, we have a huge opportunity to work together,” said Mr Al Ghaith.
The two Dubai government-owned airlines co-ordinated before the pandemic on “basic” elements such as code-sharing and schedules.
They also reduced layovers and moved flydubai flights closer to Emirates at Dubai International airport's Terminal 3.
This gave the airlines a “huge business opportunity and this will continue”, he said.
Emirates and flydubai will remain separate brands while forging closer ties, he said, echoing comments by Emirates airline president Tim Clark's this week.
“Right now, the objective is to work as two separate airlines but that does not mean we cannot grow together,” said Mr Al Ghaith. “There is huge potential.”
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
57%20Seconds
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Rusty%20Cundieff%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJosh%20Hutcherson%2C%20Morgan%20Freeman%2C%20Greg%20Germann%2C%20Lovie%20Simone%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2%2F5%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe
Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta
Quercus
Fixtures
Tuesday - 5.15pm: Team Lebanon v Alger Corsaires; 8.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Pharaohs
Wednesday - 5.15pm: Pharaohs v Carthage Eagles; 8.30pm: Alger Corsaires v Abu Dhabi Storms
Thursday - 4.30pm: Team Lebanon v Pharaohs; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Carthage Eagles
Friday - 4.30pm: Pharaohs v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Team Lebanon
Saturday - 4.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Team Lebanon
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
BIOSAFETY LABS SECURITY LEVELS
Biosafety Level 1
The lowest safety level. These labs work with viruses that are minimal risk to humans.
Hand washing is required on entry and exit and potentially infectious material decontaminated with bleach before thrown away.
Must have a lock. Access limited. Lab does not need to be isolated from other buildings.
Used as teaching spaces.
Study microorganisms such as Staphylococcus which causes food poisoning.
Biosafety Level 2
These labs deal with pathogens that can be harmful to people and the environment such as Hepatitis, HIV and salmonella.
Working in Level 2 requires special training in handling pathogenic agents.
Extra safety and security precautions are taken in addition to those at Level 1
Biosafety Level 3
These labs contain material that can be lethal if inhaled. This includes SARS coronavirus, MERS, and yellow fever.
Significant extra precautions are taken with staff given specific immunisations when dealing with certain diseases.
Infectious material is examined in a biological safety cabinet.
Personnel must wear protective gowns that must be discarded or decontaminated after use.
Strict safety and handling procedures are in place. There must be double entrances to the building and they must contain self-closing doors to reduce risk of pathogen aerosols escaping.
Windows must be sealed. Air from must be filtered before it can be recirculated.
Biosafety Level 4
The highest level for biosafety precautions. Scientist work with highly dangerous diseases that have no vaccine or cure.
All material must be decontaminated.
Personnel must wear a positive pressure suit for protection. On leaving the lab this must pass through decontamination shower before they have a personal shower.
Entry is severely restricted to trained and authorised personnel. All entries are recorded.
Entrance must be via airlocks.
The%20Roundup
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
OIL PLEDGE
At the start of Russia's invasion, IEA member countries held 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry, according to the agency's website. The two collective actions of the IEA this year of 62.7 million barrels, which was agreed on March 1, and this week's 120 million barrels amount to 9 per cent of total emergency reserves, it added.
