The Gulf's low-fare airline sector was given a boost at the show with Emirates' no-frills start-up FlyDubai announcing a deal for 54 Boeing 737s, while local rival Qatar Airways is threatening rapid retaliation to any market impostors.
FlyDubai, which will launch services from the new Al-Maktoum international airport at Jebel Ali a little under a year from now, placed orders for 50 737-800s and took leases on four more from Babcock and Brown. The airline has the option to trade part of the order up to the larger -900ER variant.
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"We'll take delivery of five aircraft in our first year and then eight or nine in the second," says FlyDubai chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith. While Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum says that FlyDubai "will have our own [low-cost] model", Al Gaith indicates that the airline will be similar to EasyJet, operating its aircraft in a high density layout (189 seats) and offering buy-on-board services as well the ability to select seating. "We'll operate sectors of up to 4-4.5h," he says, with "important" markets including the Indian subcontinent, Iran, CIS, North Africa and the GCC.
Responding to FlyDubai's order, Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker says that while the airline has no plans to enter the low-fare market, it has completed a study into the service levels and aircraft reconfiguration required, and has a name registered should the move be deemed necessary: "Ninety days from when I feel the pain of a low-cost carrier eroding my market I will launch my own," he says. "We'll hit them in their own markets."
Al Baker says that there are already three low-fare airlines operating into Qatar's Doha hub - Air Arabia, Air India Express and Bahrain Air. However, he does not think that the region is suited to low-fare operations in the way other areas such as Europe are: "We don't have the secondary airports, the liberal skies and the volumes of passengers travelling within the region." He adds that other issues also hamper the movement of passengers such as visa requirements and the cost of living.
Source: Flight International
