LONDON – Budget sister company of Emirates, FlyDubai (FZ), are going to lease four Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Czech carrier Smartwings. The lease will last from November 17 to January 16. The lease agreement comes at a crucial moment with the upcoming heavy demand for the FIFA World Cup for the end of 2022.
Great time for lease
Seeing the great demand for daily flights as the upcoming FIFA World Cup rapidly approaches, Dubai based FlyDubai (FZ) has announced a two month lease of four Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Czech carrier Smartwings. The leasing period from November to January, comes at a perfect time with the daily demand increasing by years end.
Ghaith Al Ghaith, FlyDubai’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented on the agreement saying: “Having previously worked with Smartwings, we are confident that the leasing of four additional aircraft will provide our passengers with more convenient and reliable options for travel during the winter season,”
During the World Cup phase, FlyDubai is set to operate 30 shuttle flights daily, something that might be the reason for the lease as their fleet capacity will be in heavy use during this season.
The leased aircraft from Smartwings will operate on routes within the FlyDubai network, with destinations such as Chattogram, Colombo, Dhaka, Karachi, Multan, Muscat and Sialkot.
With FlyDubai also being a major operator of the Boeing 737 family, with now the NG’s and MAX-aircraft, the lease from Smartwings will fit in just great for the crew as they are already familiar on the type.
In total, the FlyDubai-fleet consists of total 68 Boeing 737 aircraft. 32 being the older 737-800 NG aircraft, 33 being the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and further 3 Boeing 737 MAX 9
FlyDubai’s latest route addition
Together with the decision to lease Smartwings aircraft, FlyDubai also announced a new route to the southernmost island in the Maldives. However, the Smartwings aircraft are not to be used on this service as the route begins after the lease agreement has ended.
On the route addition however, Ghaith Al Ghaith noted: “The start of our daily flights to the southern island of Gan will give our passengers more options to travel to the beautiful Maldives.”
“This new service will reduce the commute time whether by boat or seaplane for those staying in resorts in the southern Atolls. The Maldives continues to be one of the most popular leisure destinations for our customers from the UAE, GCC and CIS. The additional frequency to the market will further support connecting traffic from Europe as well.”
Overall
The lease does most definitely come at a great time in which demand will spike due to the FIFA World Cup, held in Qatar later this year. As FlyDubai schedules 30 daily shuttle-flights, their capacity will be greatly reduced as one aircraft can not operate 30 flights per day.
Leasing from Smartwings also does benefit the crew who are already familiarized with the Boeing 737-800 and MAX aircraft, making the lease agreement a good one.
[give_form id=”15485″]
