DUBAI: FlyDubai, Dubai’s low-budget carrier, announced yesterday that it has secured a deal to finance four Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth $320 million with GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS).
The sale and leaseback agreement covers the aircraft due to be delivered this year, with two expected in July, one in October and one in December.
“This is a significant deal for FlyDubai as it is the first financing that we have secured from outside the UAE. This deal ensures our financing needs for the rest of 2009 when we will receive a further four aircraft from Boeing. This will bring our fleet to a total of six aircraft by the end of the year and allow FlyDubai to operate to around 14 destinations,” says FlyDubai CEO Ghaith Al-Ghaith
The Dubai government-owned airline ordered 54 Boeing single-aisle 737 aircraft in a deal worth around $4 billion in November. The first two of these aircraft arrived in May and went into service at the beginning of June.
Norm C. T. Liu, GECAS’ newly named president and CEO, said: “This is a major achievement, the product of excellent work between our two teams - we wish FlyDubai every success in this new venture.”
FlyDubai was announced by the government of Dubai in March 2008 with a start-up capital of AED250 million.
FlyDubai has announced flights to eight destinations across the Middle East, North Africa and India, and currently operates to four: Beirut, Amman, Damascus and Alexandria.
The first two aircraft covered by this agreement will arrive in July and will service FlyDubai’s recently announced Indian routes: Lucknow, Coimbatore and Chandigarh. The carrier is also planning a route to Aleppo.
