flydubai airline reports total revenue of $689 million in H1-2017

August 28, 2017: flydubai has announced its half-year results for the 2017 financial year and has reported total revenue of AED 2.5 billion (USD 689 million) an increase of 9.9 percent compared to the first six months of last year and a loss of AED 142.5 million (USD 38.8 million).

Passenger numbers increased to 5.4 million; an increase of 10.5 percent compared to the first six months of 2016. The number of passengers carried per departure saw an increase of 13.7 percent for the same period. According to a press release from the airline, flydubai contributed 19.4 percent 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 percent of all traffic in Dubai.

The release further says that 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 percent of operating costs compared to 23.5 percent 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 at AED 2.1 billion.

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.”