Strong passenger growth amidst falling yields flydubai reports half-year results for the 2017 financial year

Historically, the trend for the second half has been stronger than the first half.

Passenger numbers increased to 5.4 million; an increase of 10.5% compared to the first six months of 2016. The number of passengers carried per departure saw an increase of 13.7% for the same period.

The increase in passenger numbers reflects the strength of flydubai’s network connecting previously underserved markets to Dubai. 

The number of Business Class passengers carried per departure saw an increase of 22% compared to the same period last year.

In addition, flydubai contributed 19.4% to the total growth at Dubai Airports compared to the first half of 2016. During the first six months of 2017, flydubai contributed 12.4% of all traffic in Dubai.

The demand for travel on flydubai remains strong and the airline has seen its overall market share grow.

These factors have, however, been offset by the price performance determined by the market.

The airline also faced comparatively higher fuel expenses during the reporting period with fuel costs accounting for 24.8% of operating costs compared to 23.5% in the previous reporting period. In addition, the airline added 8 aircraft to its fleet since July 2016.

The closing cash and cash equivalents position including pre-delivery payments for future aircraft deliveries, remained robust at AED 2.1 billion.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer of flydubai, said, “the demand for travel from the growing number of our passengers remains strong. We will however continue to manage our cost performance and balance this with our long-term view of the potential for air travel in the region.  We know that we need to remain flexible to the market dynamics across our network. We will continue our disciplined approach to increasing capacity whilst pursuing our broader goal of firmly establishing flydubai at the centre of the global travel industry.”

Arbind Kumar, Senior Vice President, Finance of flydubai, said, “during the first six months of this year, we have seen pressure on both yield and cost.  We continue to focus our efforts on three key areas: improvement in our cost performance, a broadening of our distribution and optimisation of our network.  Knowing that we have faced a similar seasonality and trend in previous years, we will move ahead cautiously but strong in the knowledge that there remains much untapped opportunity.”