Dubai’s closest homegrown version of a low-cost carrier, flydubai, has issued a rare public rebuke of aircraft manufacturer Boeing, slamming the embattled company for “short-noticed and frequent delivery schedule revisions” that are now jeopardizing the airline’s growth plans.
Coming on the opening day of the Farnborough Air Show, the reproach by flydubai overshadowed a slew of announcements from Boeing for new aircraft orders from Korean Air, Japan Airlines, and Lux Air.
Founded in 2009 by Dubai’s government to open up new routes to the emirate from secondary markets, flydubai has been an all-Boeing operator since its inception, utilising a mix of 737-800s, 737MAX-8s MAX-9s.
But flydubai has become increasingly frustrated with Boeing’s inability to deliver aircraft within the timeframe it has promised. Flydubai says the manufacturer hasn’t managed to deliver the number of new planes it promised for the past three years and there have been multiple revision to the delivery schedule for 2024.
Over the years, flydubai has placed orders for a total of 262 single-aisle aircraft from Boeing but 127 of those aircraft are yet to be delivered. All of the planes flydubai received in the first six months of this year were from previous years backlogs.
“Boeing’s short-noticed and frequent delivery schedule revisions have hindered our strategic growth plans resulting in significant disruptions to our published schedules,” slammed flydubai’s CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith on Monday.
Al Ghaith added: “We urge Boeing to take immediate action and implement measures to stabilise its production and delivery processes to avoid further delays while upholding the highest standards. We look forward to a swift resolution of this issue”.
Flydubai says it built its expansion plans for 2024 around Boeing’s promise to deliver 14 new aircraft but those plans are now in tatters and the airline is trying to work out how to cut back its schedule.
Already reliant on wet leasing aircraft from other airlines to keep its schedule ruling, flydubai says it has also had to spend additional money on retrofitting older aircraft that should have been replaced by now.
Of course, delivery delays aren’t unique to Boeing, and rival manufacturer Airbus has had its own issues, especially with global supply chains still struggling to recover from the pandemic.
And it’s not like flydubai is about to abandon Boeing anytime soon. In fact, last November, the carrier placed its first-ever widebody aircraft order for 30 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
