flydubai has revealed a surge in profits to $229 million (AED 841 million) within in its annual results for the financial year ending 31 December 2021.
The firm reported total annual revenue of $1.43 billion (AED 5.3 billion) in 2021, marking an 86% year-on-year increase compared to $773 million (AED 2.8 billion) in 2020.
The government-owned low-cost airline witnessed a 76% increase in passengers compared to 2020, reporting at 5.6 million passengers in 2021 with an overall seat factor of 69%.
In 2021, 22 new routes were launched in 2021, 13 of which were unserved destinations from Dubai. The top 10 busiest routes for scheduled flights across the flydubai network were Alexandria (HBE), Bahrain (BAH), Bucharest (OTP), Doha (DOH), Karachi (KHI), Kathmandu (KTM), Male’ (MLE), Tbilisi (TBS), Tel Aviv (TLV), and Zanzibar (ZNZ).
To meet the demand for travel over the summer, the airline launched flights to five destinations for the summer season: Batumi (BUS), Bodrum (BJV), Mykonos (JMK), Santorini (JTR) and Trabzon (TZX).
With the easing of the travel restrictions around the network, flydubai has seen an increase in the demand for travel. In January 2020, flydubai operated 5,701 flights. The number of flights surpassed pre-pandemic levels in December 2021 when the airline operated 6,430 flights.
flydubai has seen an increase in demand for connecting traffic with 34% of passengers connecting on to the flydubai network or through its codeshare with Emirates.
Since the airline’s extended codeshare partnership with Emirates was launched in 2017, more than 8.3 million passengers have enjoyed seamless connectivity across the joint network.
In 2021, the flydubai fleet expanded to 59 aircraft including 34 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800, 22 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 3 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft.
Commenting on the announcement of the airline’s full-year results for 2021, the chairman of flydubai, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said: “The tremendous results flydubai is reporting for 2021 come after a very challenging two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The decisions taken by the UAE’s leadership, which saw the implementation of the precautionary safety measures throughout the customer journey, gave visitors the confidence to travel to Dubai; resulting in a 76% year-on-year increase in passenger numbers. We remain well placed to continue to welcome passengers across our network to Dubai and beyond. flydubai is intrinsic to Dubai’s travel and tourism industry.”
The chief executive officer at flydubai, Ghaith Al Ghaith, said: “flydubai’s business model remains strong and has served us well through the pandemic. As demand returned these strong fundamentals have translated into a significant improvement in our financial performance. This achievement has been made possible by the commitment of our hardworking employees combined with our business agility.”
Ghaith Al Ghaith added: “A challenge that remained throughout 2021 was the constant changes to the travel restrictions. This meant that passengers did not have the confidence to book travel early, however they continued to travel with a shorter booking window ahead of their date of travel.
“During the second half of the year, travel restrictions began to ease which led to an increase in demand for travel across our network. We launched flights to seasonal summer destinations to offer more options for passengers and the increase in our flight schedule in the second half of the year supported the demand for inbound travel to Dubai.”
The airline’s strategy for the year ahead is to contribute to the rebuilding of the travel sector following the Covid-19 pandemic.
From March 2022, flydubai will take delivery of 20 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which will see further deployment of its onboard product and support the airline’s future growth.
These aircraft will be deployed across the network to provide customers with the opportunity to travel to more places, more often.
Commenting on the outlook for 2022, the chief executive officer at flydubai, Ghaith Al Ghaith, added: “With the lifting of restrictions across our network and increasing demand for travel, we are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead notwithstanding the geopolitical situation and its potential effect on the pricing of commodities.”
“During 2022, we will see the largest number of aircraft delivered in any year since the launch of the airline. As the momentum for travel continues to build, we will increase frequencies and introduce new destinations on our network during 2022. To support this growth trajectory, we will need to recruit the best people in the industry willing to contribute to flydubai’s continued success story.”
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