Gulf apart: the distinct growth trajectories of Flydubai and Air Arabia
The United Arab Emirates’ two home-grown short-haul airlines have come a long way since their foundation – 15 and 20 years ago, respectively – as supposedly low-cost upstarts. Both are following their own growth strategies as they bounce back strongly from the Covid-19 downturn, expand their route maps, and edge towards three-figure fleet sizes. Flydubai, founded in 2008, may have once described itself as a low-cost airline, but with its plush headquarters on Dubai’s developing eastern outskirts, freshly minted code share agreements with two leading North American operators, and an improved business class product destined for its Boeing 737 Max and NG fleet, there is little no-frills about Emirates’ independent sibling. CE Ghaith Al Ghaith recalls when his boss Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum – who chairs Flydubai and Emirates – was asked at its unveiling if Flydubai would be a low-cost carrier. “His Highness’s response was: ‘It will be Flydubai’.” Al Ghaith insists that uniqueness holds true today. Flydubai was not modelled on any airline and remains “completely distinct” from Emirates, he says. Al Ghaith describes Flydubai’s mission as “connecting Dubai to places it was not connected to”, complementing the all-widebody offering of Emirates, which Flydubai code shares with on about 30 routes. Flydubai serves around 120 destinations – including 20 introduced this year – about three-quarters of which do not overlap with Emirates. Just 25km away from Flydubai’s Dubai International hub, Sharjah’s Air Arabia has adopted a different expansion path since its foundation in 2003. A core part of the all-Airbus A320 family operator’s philosophy has been establishing joint ventures with local partners in Armenia, Pakistan, and the UAE emirate of Abu Dhabi, where it partners with Etihad. It also has offshoots in Egypt and Morocco. CE Adel Ali too is reluctant to describe the carrier as low-cost, despite its single-cabin product. “My belief is that the term low-cost carrier is about how you manage cost and not about the customer experience. The customer needs to be satisfied and feel that they have had value for money,” he says. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-09-18/unaligned/gulf-apart-the-distinct-growth-trajectories-of-flydubai-and-air-arabia
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
Gulf apart: the distinct growth trajectories of Flydubai and Air Arabia
The United Arab Emirates’ two home-grown short-haul airlines have come a long way since their foundation – 15 and 20 years ago, respectively – as supposedly low-cost upstarts. Both are following their own growth strategies as they bounce back strongly from the Covid-19 downturn, expand their route maps, and edge towards three-figure fleet sizes. Flydubai, founded in 2008, may have once described itself as a low-cost airline, but with its plush headquarters on Dubai’s developing eastern outskirts, freshly minted code share agreements with two leading North American operators, and an improved business class product destined for its Boeing 737 Max and NG fleet, there is little no-frills about Emirates’ independent sibling. CE Ghaith Al Ghaith recalls when his boss Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum – who chairs Flydubai and Emirates – was asked at its unveiling if Flydubai would be a low-cost carrier. “His Highness’s response was: ‘It will be Flydubai’.” Al Ghaith insists that uniqueness holds true today. Flydubai was not modelled on any airline and remains “completely distinct” from Emirates, he says. Al Ghaith describes Flydubai’s mission as “connecting Dubai to places it was not connected to”, complementing the all-widebody offering of Emirates, which Flydubai code shares with on about 30 routes. Flydubai serves around 120 destinations – including 20 introduced this year – about three-quarters of which do not overlap with Emirates. Just 25km away from Flydubai’s Dubai International hub, Sharjah’s Air Arabia has adopted a different expansion path since its foundation in 2003. A core part of the all-Airbus A320 family operator’s philosophy has been establishing joint ventures with local partners in Armenia, Pakistan, and the UAE emirate of Abu Dhabi, where it partners with Etihad. It also has offshoots in Egypt and Morocco. CE Adel Ali too is reluctant to describe the carrier as low-cost, despite its single-cabin product. “My belief is that the term low-cost carrier is about how you manage cost and not about the customer experience. The customer needs to be satisfied and feel that they have had value for money,” he says. Story has more.<br/>
