Yesterday’s FlyDubai order for 54 Boeing 737-800s and -900s is only the beginning for the Middle East’s latest low-cost start-up, said chairman .
“I am sure we will be much larger,” he says. The airline will start flying from Dubai’s new Jebel Ali International Airport in mid-2009.
FlyDubai will initially take four 189-seat 737-800s from lessor Babcock & Brown, enabling it to obtain new aircraft next year, while 50 new 737s will be delivered up to 2015. The total order is worth $4 billion, said Sheikh Ahmed.
FlyDubai, which is being created by the Dubai Government, will focus on routes within a four-and-a-half hour radius of Dubai. “Traffic in the Middle East, the Gulf and the Indian subcontinent will remain very strong,” says Shiekh Ahmed.
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And while rising fuel prices are a concern, “these are times people have to make decisions for the future…the market will take it”, says chief executive Ghaith Saeed Al Ghaith.
FlyDubai’s fleet will be powered by CFM56-7B engines in the latest ‘Tech Insertion’ configuration, giving a 1% improvement in fuel burn as well as lower emissions and lower maintenance costs. The engine order is valued at nearly $700 million at list prices.
Improved analytical design tools have enabled CFM to optimise the Tech Insertion combustor to give 25% lower NOx emissions, allowing the engine to meet the ICAO’s latest CAEP/6 emissions standards scheduled to take effect in 2008. In addition, the engine’s better SFC means less CO2 [SUBSCRIPT], reducing these emissions by 200 tonnes per aircraft per year.
Source: Flight International
