The airline has already leased four old models of 37-800 jets between December 14 and January 25. Boeing has informed airlines and suppliers of the aircraft’s new costing. According to the US planemaker, the MAX will rebound to service as a high priority. Boeing aims to get the MAX back into service before October this year. 

Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research told the Khaleej Times that the airline requires a better capacity to meet demand and generate revenue. Flydubai said in a statement that, “We are looking at short- to medium-term leasing options to add more capacity for the coming few months. The discussions with Boeing regarding compensation are ongoing.” 

Previously, the airline had alerted that its operations might fall to 2014 levels if Boeing does not return to service within a reasonable period. Flydubai’s order for 250 MAX jets is the second largest for the Boeing model after Southwest, a media report said. Southwest is a major American airline headquartered in Dallas, Texas. 

Flydubai and Emirates commence their third year strategic partnership to strengthen Dubai’s position as a leading global aviation hub. Since October 2017, more than 5.27 million passengers have benefitted from Emirates and Flydubai partnership, a media report said. Emirates passengers have access to 94 destinations on the Flydubai network, while Flydubai passengers can access 143 Emirates destinations. 

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According to reports, the Dubai airport passenger traffic reached 41.3 million passengers in the first half of 2019 amid the runway closure.

The airport had shut down its southern runway for the purpose of rehabilitation from April 16 to May 30. Dubai airport’s runway closure led to a reduction of its runway capacity by half its normal size and led to a reduction in the passenger flights by 32 percent.  The number of flights into the airport dropped by 11.6 percent to 178,383 while the cargo volume fell by 18.3 percent to 1.04 million.

“A significant portion of the cargo traffic at Dubai International is belly-hold which was impacted by the Southern runway rehabilitation programme,” Dubai Airports said in a statement.

India retained the position of being the most popular destination for Dubai travellers, with traffic for the first half of 2019 reaching 5.7 million. Delhi and Mumbai were the most popular cities in India. Saudi Arabia follows to be second with 3.1 million travellers, followed by United Kingdom with 2.8 million.

Most of the flights from Dubai airport were redirected to Dubai World Central, an international airport situated in Jebel Ali. The redirecting of flights caused an increase in the passenger traffic in DWC to almost double its usual traffic.  DWC had reported passenger traffic of 517,813 in the first half of 2018, which doubled to 1.2 million over the same period in 2019.

The introduction of smart gates in the Dubai international airport has reportedly reduced the waiting time by 25 percent in the first half of 2019.

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