Flydubai secures external funding for next stage route growth

Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith, said: “This is a significant deal for flydubai as it is the first financing that we have secured from outside the UAE. This deal ensures our financing needs for the rest of 2009 when we will receive a further four aircraft from Boeing. This will bring our fleet to a total of six aircraft by the end of the year and allow flydubai to operate to around 14 destinations.”
 
Norm C. T. Liu, GECAS’ newly named President & CEO, said: “This is a major achievement, the product of excellent work between our two teams - we wish flydubai every success in this new venture."

Flydubai was announced by the Government of Dubai in March 2008 with a start-up capital of AED250m. An historic order at the Farnborough Air Show in July 2008, saw flydubai become the biggest customer in the Middle East of the 737-800, with an order book of 50 at a list price of approximately US$4bn. The first two of these aircraft arrived in May and went into service at the beginning of June. This financing agreement covers the next four aircraft that flydubai will receive.
 
Flydubai has announced flights to eight destinations across the Middle East, North Africa and India, and currently operates to four – Beirut (Lebanon), Amman (Jordan), Damascus (Syria) and Alexandria (Egypt).
 
The first two aircraft covered by this agreement will arrive in July and will service flydubai’s recently announced Indian routes of Lucknow, Coimbatore and Chandigarh as well as Aleppo (Syria).
 

Left to right: Doug Winter, Senior Vice President, Regional Manager MEA & CIS/Russia, GE Capital Aviation Services, Ghaith Al Ghaith, flydubai's CEO and Neil Mills, flydubai's CFO, at a press a conference held earlier today to announce a US$320 million aircraft financing agreement between flydubai and GECAS