Ghaith Al Ghaith, FlyDubai CEO explained yesterday at the Low Cost Congress in London how the airline has been successful at adapting the traditional low cost model to meet the requirements of the environment in which the airline operates saying: "This region is one which is still very dependant on face to face contact, that, plus poor internet penetration and the low percentage of credit card usage in some markets, has meant we have had to adapt the low cost model. Internet-only selling is not an option and we have recruited a network of distributors and travel agents to sell directly to the customer. We also have a number of payment partners, such as currency exchanges, banks and post offices, where customers can pay for their bookings in cash or through ATM machines, to serve the large numbers of passengers who don't have credit cards.”
The success the airline has enjoyed during its first 12 months has been recognized by the financing community too, as Al Ghaith explained: "We have just completed our latest round of financing and have been pleasantly surprised by the interest we received from the market. In fact we received offers for far more aircraft than we currently wish to finance. We received offers for more than 80 aircraft and we decided to take up the offers for nine of them.
"As a new airline, to have that level of confidence and support from some of the world's largest international aircraft financing companies is tremendously satisfying. This latest deal secures our financing needs until June 2011. Keep an eye on this airline as it goes for its next round of financing in Q2 2011 to see how things are really going,” he said.