Flydubai gains firsts in aviation business

Sunimalee Dias reporting from Beirut

Flydubai the newest low cost carrier out of the Middle East on Monday launched its innovative interior and high definition in-flight entertainment system on Boeing 737-800 from Dubai to Beirut recreating a new look at low cost aviation from the Middle East.

The airline is scheduled to add these new features to its flights into and out of Colombo as well next year that will be part of the several other routes set to enjoy the significant aspects of the airline. Flydubai commenced its operations into Colombo on 24 June this year.

Fludubai CEO Ghaith Al Gaith addressing the media in the Lebanese capital Beirut said that this low cost carrier will be the first airline to offer the new Boeing interior and flight entertainment offered by Lumexis. Flydubai is an airline owned by the Dubai government and the first low cost airline in the country that commenced operations in June 2009.

The airline took off on its first flight from Dubai to Beirut 18 months back and has expanded its fleet to a total of 13 aircraft by taking delivery of a quartet of new Boeing 737-800 Next Generations in a number of weeks.

The four new aircraft additions come complete with flydubai’s revolutionary “Fibre To The Screen” (FTTS) In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system from Lumexis. This fibre optic based system is lighter and thinner than previous models enabling it to fit comfortably into the airline’s special Recaro seats. This reduction in weight allows flydubai to offer their customers the best in-flight entertainment on the market, while significantly reducing the associated costs, meaning flydubai can keep its ticket prices low.

In line with flydubai’s culture of only charging travellers for the services they use, the new IFE will be available as an optional extra in the way that baggage and meals are. Passengers travelling on these new flydubai aircraft, will have the ability to choose what they want to watch depending on their preference and how much they want to spend.

Al Gaith observed that by the end of next year 60% of the airline’s aircraft will be equipped with this new system on longer routes about four hours’ duration.



The growth of the airline is expected to reach that of its counterparts in Europe. However, flydubai expressed the need to have more opening of skies and routes noting that the skies of the Middle East were not as flexible as in Europe and the US.

The narrow body aircraft in the new airplanes offers customers the ability to relive the magical experience of flying by adding lighting features that will create a wider space within the aircraft and keep it in line with the daylight at the time outside of the aircraft on the new Boeing Sky Interior. “The new LED allows changes to light from white and blue to orange according to the appropriate day time,” Al Gaith said.

The spacious new interior aims to improve passenger comfort onboard the new flydubai planes, and has subtle mood lighting to simulate night time, day time and sunrise/sunset, as well as redesigned overhead bins to give more cabin space and increased storage.

Flydubai currently has 12 aircrafts in operation having ordered fifty 737-800NG aircraft from Boeing at the Farnborough Air Show in July 2008.

One of the most striking features of flydubai’s aircrafts are its winglets that have inclined wing tips to reduce drag and provide extra lift adding an extra 1.4 m to the wingspan, and are aerodynamically designed to save up to 4% of the total fuel burn. It is expected to save flydubai between 75, 000 – 125, 000 gallons of fuel per aircraft per year that ensure energy expense is saved and extending the engine life and reducing maintenance costs.

A new interior

Passenger Satisfaction and Revenue Boeing Commercial Airplanes Regional Director Kent Craver, speaking to the media explained that the new interior showcased the results of research carried out by psychologists and cultural anthropologists.

“People are fascinated with flight but less enthused with the things on the ground,” he said noting that pre-flight preparations were tiresome to travellers and as a result Boeing has ensured they could relive the magical experience of flying.

Research carried out with the help of focus groups in cities from around the world, in order to understand people’s mentality towards flying, found that humans are fascinated with flying.

Craver replying to a question said this new feature is an offering for 737-800 aircraft as well as based on choice of airlines for these new additional features in their interior.

Already seven airlines have signed up with flydubai being the first to take delivery of this new additional feature, he said. Delivery of the other aircraft with the new interior designs will take place within the coming months while three other airlines namely Malaysian Airlines, TUI Group and Norwegian Air shuttle have already taken delivery of their orders with Boeing. At present approximately 1700 airplanes of 737-800 will be manufactured with this new feature, he said. It was pointed out that the important part of the product was that it was a differentiator for customers with preference over the kind of aircraft they would like to travel with.

Flight entertainment enhanced

In-flight entertainment is becoming popular among passengers as a result of which the traditional systems that were prohibitively expensive for a low cost carrier is now being replaced by the Lumexis FTTS touch screen system offering a flexible, high quality and innovative IFE option at a fraction of the normal cost.

Lumexis CEO Doug Cline observed that the organisation has already delivered three airplanes in less than a year having signed the contract with flydubai back in November 2009.

“We now brought a system of high quality movie experience not available in any airline anywhere in the world,” he said adding that this is the first to be delivered and to enter the market.

The low cost system is currently sold at half the purchase price of the traditional systems, Cline said noting it provided them with the ability to express “who we are” in a most cost effective way of entertaining customers.

It was expected that a large number of airlines were bound to ride along flydubai’s new entertainment experience launched by Lumexis with more airlines in 2011 and 2012 to move in with the new IFE system.

Today with two competitors in the market namely Panasonic holding 70% of the market share and Thales with 30% it has become big and costly to own with the reliability of cost of ownership “our business is to reduce one-third the weight”, he said.

Cline believed that they would be capable of grabbing a major market share in the next three years due to their objective of being as good as any other system.

In this respect, currently flydubai is the only airline to offer full high definition movies and TV programmes until next year in the Middle East region, it was pointed out.

With the requirement being a bigger bandwidth in order to provide this unique system of flight entertainment, the Lumexis system is on a network speed of 1GB per second that has not been offered previously on a full aircraft.

Colombo bound

Flydubai believes that the attractive destination of Colombo is ideal for it to increase its flight frequencies into and out of the capital. In this respect, Al Gaith noted that Sri Lanka can only be better by leaps and its recent history has capped the growth in the country.

It was noted that they intend on increasing its flights to the destination in a bid to realise the full potential if allowed in 2011.

Commenting on Sri Lanka’s own budget airline Mihin Air, he said “We really can make a difference,” and “complement each other.”

In this respect, he believed that more such airlines would mean more shelves to put on display and observed that the national carrier SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Air were doing “very well.” He encouraged more cooperation between the three airlines and welcomed the Sri Lankan airlines to its Middle Eastern home base.