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The UAE carrier flydubai’s expansion plans have hit turbulence over extensive delays in Boeing’s aircraft delivery schedules, the airline has confirmed.
The Dubai-based carrier said its expansion plans have been “significantly impacted” by Boeing’s latest update, forcing the airline to evaluate its route development plans and potential frequency revision across the network due to a lack of new aircraft deliveries over the next few months.
“We are extremely disappointed to learn that Boeing will not be able to fulfil its commitment to deliver more aircraft for the remainder of the year. Boeing’s short-noticed and frequent delivery schedule revisions have hindered our strategic growth plans resulting in significant disruptions to our published schedules. The reduced capacity will ultimately affect our customers as well as our projected financial performance,” flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith, said.
The CEO urged Boeing to take immediate action and implement measures to stabilise its production and delivery processes to avoid further delays.
flydubai’s plans for 2024 included a commitment to receive 14 new aircraft. The carrier said it continues to explore all possible avenues to mitigate the impact of these delivery delays.
flydubai operates a single fleet-type of 88 Boeing 737 aircraft and includes: 29 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800, 56 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 03 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
The airline said ongoing challenges with Boeing’s delivery schedule has resulted in fewer aircraft being delivered every year for the past three years. Multiple revisions of the delivery schedule for 2024 meant that Boeing will not deliver the 14 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft originally scheduled for the year. The aircraft delivered in the first half of the year were from the backlog of previous years and faced extensive delays, flydubai added.
The airline has more than 125 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on order to be delivered over the next decade. At the Dubai Airshow last November, flydubai had placed an order for 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners worth $11 billion, diversifying its current fleet of all-Boeing 737 aircraft, which is a narrow-body aircraft.
The carrier said to mitigate the delays in aircraft deliveries and to meet the surge in demand for travel, flydubai had to enter Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) agreements.
It has also extended the lease on some of the aircraft which were scheduled to be returned to the lessors under its Sale and Leaseback agreements. Additionally, flydubai has also invested in a retrofit programme for its fleet of Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Flydubai added that with fewer aircraft deliveries, the airline has been forced to review its schedule and frequency of operations across its network.
Earlier this month, Boeing notified its 737 Max customers that aircraft due for delivery in 2025 and 2026 could face additional delays of three to six months.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)