By Abdul Basit
The Dubai-based flydubai has declared Dh841 million profit for 2021 on solid business fundamentals and increased passenger demand.
The airline reported total annual revenue of Dh5.3 billion for 2021 compared to Dh2.8 billion in 2020, showing an increase of 86 per cent. The airline carried 5.6 million passengers, more than 76% compared to 2020.
Commenting on the airline’s annual results Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of flydubai, said: “The tremendous results flydubai is reporting for 2021 come after a very challenging two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decisions taken by the UAE’s leadership, which saw the implementation of the precautionary safety measures throughout the customer journey, gave visitors the confidence to travel to Dubai; resulting in a 76% year-on-year increase in passenger numbers.
We remain well placed to continue to welcome passengers across our network to Dubai and beyond. flydubai is intrinsic to Dubai’s travel and tourism industry.”
Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai, said: “flydubai’s business model remains strong and has served us well through the pandemic. As demand returned, these strong fundamentals have translated into a significant improvement in our financial performance.
This achievement has been made possible by the commitment of our hardworking employees combined with our business agility.”
Commenting on the travel restrictions that were in place across its network, Al Ghaith said:
“A challenge that remained throughout 2021 was the constant changes to the travel restrictions. This meant that passengers did not have the confidence to book travel early, however they continued to travel with a shorter booking window ahead of their date of travel. During the second half of the year, travel restrictions began to ease which led to an increase in demand for travel across our network. We launched flights to seasonal summer destinations to offer more options for passengers and the increase in our flight schedule in the second half of the year supported the demand for inbound travel to Dubai.” – abdulbasit@theuaenews.com
