Flydubai’s chief executive is concerned about the continued aircraft delivery delays by US plane maker Boeing, joining a chorus of global airline bosses expressing frustration about supply chain woes during a continuing boom in travel demand.
Flydubai, an all-Boeing fleet operator, has conducted several visits to inspect Boeing’s plants and its suppliers to make sure production standards are “consistently” at a “high level”, Ghaith Al Ghaith told reporters at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Monday.
“We are definitely very concerned about the delays and all the negative issues that are in the pipeline or in the media,” he said. “But we work closely with Boeing, they work very hard to regain the trust of the customers and we are one of their customers.
“We have teams that interact with Boeing from the highest level to the lowest level, including visiting, not only their plants, but we also visit the suppliers.”
Flydubai has grown its network with the addition of five new destinations since the start of 2024 with operations to Al Jouf, Langkawi, Mombasa, Penang and the Red Sea.
The airline said it carried nearly five million passengers between January and April 2024, a 13 per cent increase year-on-year.
“The added capacity has seen more passengers travel with us since the beginning of this year, even though this growth has been dampened by the ongoing delays in aircraft deliveries,” Mr Al Ghaith said.
The airline has a fleet of 86 Boeing 737 aircraft: 29 Boeing 737-800s, 54 Boeing 737 Max 8s and 3 Boeing 737 Max 9s.
Boeing has been grappling with a major crisis that erupted in January after a mid-air panel blowout on a new Alaska Airline 737 Max 9.
The plane maker is seeking to buy Spirit AeroSystems, its fuselage supplier and former subsidiary, as it seeks to address quality control issues on its 737 Max narrow-body jets.
The Flydubai chief said Boeing’s potential acquisition of its supplier is “very positive”.
“This particular action by Boeing shows that they care and it is not, as they had always been blamed, that they look at the margin and then they look at the profit,” Mr Al Ghaith said.
The move to buy Spirit to regain control of the supply chain is “a very bold, good commitment from Boeing to show that they are very serious about this. I think, we value that”, he added.
Updated: May 06, 2024, 4:28 PM