UAE's Flydubai says Boeing delays hurt airline’s expansion plans

UAE airline flydubai on Monday said that its expansion plans had been “significantly impacted” by Boeing’s latest update regarding ongoing delays to its aircraft deliveries.

The Virginia-based plane-maker has been beset by plane delivery delays since its best-selling narrow-body aircraft, the 737 MAX, was flagged for safety concerns and experienced a series of technical problems and additional quality control processes. As a result, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) won’t allow Boeing to hike output of the MAX beyond 38 jets a month until it’s convinced the quality control and supply chain issues have been resolved. 

Earlier this month, Boeing told some of its 737 MAX customers that aircraft due for delivery in 2025 and 2026 faced more delays.

In a statement Monday, the Dubai-based airline said that the company is currently evaluating its route development plans and potential frequency revision across the network due to a lack of new aircraft deliveries over the next few months. Also, flydubai urged Boeing to honor and renew its commitment to meet its delivery obligations. 

Flydubai, the sister airline of UAE airline Emirates, said that 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 COVID-19 pandemic. It said that specifically, the delays had resulted in fewer aircraft being delivered over the last three years.

The airline has more than 125 737 MAX jets on order to be delivered over the next decade. It had planned to receive 14 new aircraft this year, but flydubai said it was exploring all avenues to mitigate the impact of the delayed deliveries, including entering deals for aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance. The airline didn’t provide more details about the deals, but the agreements involve obtaining aircraft on short-term leases. Such leases are used by airlines that need a degree of fleet flexibility, whether that's due to delayed deliveries or extra capacity needed at short notice. 

The airline has also extended the lease on some of the aircraft that were scheduled to be returned to the lessors under its sale and leaseback agreements (when an aircraft lessor buys planes from an airline and leases them back to them), which the airline said had led it to incur further costs.

The Gulf carrier's comments come on the first day of the Farnborough Air Show in England, where airlines are expected to announce orders for hundreds of new technology planes. 

Addressing flydubai’s comments at Farnborough, Darren Hulst, Boeing's vice president of commercial marketing, acknowledged the delays had disappointed customers but said the US manufacturer needed time to ensure the company consistently built quality aircraft. 

"There's no doubt we've disappointed our customers, and we've disappointed them, you know, over and over again, in many cases," Hulst said, according to a Reuters report. "We need to create that stability so that we can provide not just a quality airplane, but a quality airplane when we tell our customers that it's going to be delivered."