flydubai starts flights to Basel despite Boeing delays

The Dubai-based budget carrier flydubai has become the first national carrier from the UAE to operate direct flights from Dubai to EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (BSL). The carrier now links the two airports with a four times a week, with services on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

The inaugural flight touched down at Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and was met with a traditional water cannon salute, last Wednesday, 7th August.  The budget airline has rapidly grown its network in Europe to 29 destinations including Budapest, Catania, Krakow, Milan-Bergamo, Prague, Salzburg and Zagreb.

Flights between Dubai and Basel will be operated a fleet of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Passengers travelling in Business Class can look forward to comfortable seats and internationally-inspired menus while Economy Class passengers can enjoy seats designed to optimise space and comfort.

flydubai also features exceptional inflight entertainment with a full HD, 11.6-inch screen with a wide selection of movies, TV shows, music and games. Passengers can enjoy complimentary seatback inflight entertainment in Business Class or purchase affordable inflight entertainment packages when travelling in Economy Class.

Jeyhun Efendi, Senior Vice President of commercial operations and e-commerce at flydubai, said: “at flydubai, we are committed to opening up underserved destinations and creating free flows of trade and tourism and we are pleased to add Basel to our network in Europe. EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg serves Switzerland, France and Germany, making it an important hub for travel, trade and tourism in the tri-border region that will benefit our customers from the UAE and beyond.”

“We also look forward to welcoming more travellers from Europe to Dubai and beyond on the flydubai network. Through Dubai’s aviation hub, passengers travelling from Basel can enjoy convenient connections to holiday destinations including Kenya, the Maldives, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand,” added Efendi.

Located on the banks of the river Rhine, Basel is renowned as Switzerland’s cultural capital and features interesting museums and historic and modern architecture and serves as a gateway to the verdant landscapes of the Swiss countryside. Situated on the borders of northwest Switzerland, the Alsace historical region in France and Baden-Württemberg in Germany, EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg serves as a unique gateway to three different countries.

EuroAirport’s Managing Director Matthias Suhr was delighted to welcome the new airline at the Airport: “we are proud that with regular direct flights to Dubai, the UAE is now even easier to reach from EuroAirport, which meets the growing demand for travel to this region and strengthens our role in ensuring connectivity of our tri-national region.”

Since commencing operations in 2009, the Dubai-based carrier has built a growing network of more than 125 destinations in 55 countries across Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Central and Southeast Europe, the GCC and the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent as well as Southeast Asia. This offers passengers travelling with flydubai more options to reach key business hubs as well as attractive holiday destinations.

Flight details

Flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Terminal 3, Dubai International (DXB). Emirates will codeshare on this route, offering passengers more options for connections through Dubai’s international aviation hub.

Flight Number	Departure Airport	Arrival Airport	Departure Time	Arrival Time
FZ 1425	DXB	BSL	07:25	12:35
FZ 1426	BSL	DXB	13:35	22:05

All Times Local

.

Boeing delays cause growth issues

The carrier is limited on its ability to introduce new routes due to massive delays in getting new planes from U.S. manufacturer Boeing, which has confirmed flydubai will not get any more deliveries for the rest of this year. 
Commenting on the ongoing delays, Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai, said: “we are extremely disappointed to learn that Boeing will not be able to fulfil its commitment to deliver more aircraft for the remainder of the year. Boeing’s short-noticed and frequent delivery schedule revisions have hindered our strategic growth plans resulting in significant disruptions to our published schedules. The reduced capacity will ultimately affect our customers as well as our projected financial performance.”
“flydubai has always valued its longstanding partnership with Boeing and both airline and the manufacturer have been resilient and agile in tackling challenges over the years. We urge Boeing to take immediate action and implement measures to stabilise its production and delivery processes to avoid further delays while upholding the highest standards. We look forward to a swift resolution of this issue,” added Al Ghaith.

The unpredictability of the aircraft delivery schedules from Boeing over the past few years has put significant pressure on the carrier and its ability to firmly plan for its projected growth, especially as it geared up to meet the strong demand for travel after the pandemic.
flydubai’s plans for this year were initially based on the commitment to receive 14 new aircraft.  the fleet, have been significantly impacted by ongoing Boeing aircraft delivery delays.
To mitigate the delays in aircraft deliveries and to meet the surge in demand for travel and add capacity, particularly during peak travel periods, flydubai had to enter Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) agreements.
The carrier has also extended the lease on some of the aircraft which were scheduled to be returned to the lessors under its Sale and Leaseback agreements, which has led to the airline incurring further costs.
In addition to these measures, flydubai has invested in an extensive retrofit programme for its fleet of Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft to ensure a more consistent onboard experience for its passengers and to align the cabin product in the absence of new aircraft joining the fleet for the remainder of the year.
Fewer aircraft being delivered this year has added pressure on flydubai’s fleet utilisation. With six new routes scheduled to launch over the next few months, the airline is currently reviewing its schedule and frequency of operations across its network due to restrictions in aircraft availability.