flydubai fleet to top 100 aircraft, 21 jets get lie-flat Business Class seats

Airline adds 11 MAX jets in 2026 and expands cabin baggage space across its fleet

Last updated: September 15, 2026 | 13:23

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

flydubai fleet to top 100 aircraft, 21 jets get lie-flat Business Class seats

Dubai: flydubai passengers will see more lie-flat Business Class seats and larger overhead storage across parts of the airline’s Boeing 737 MAX fleet under a new cabin upgrade programme starting in September.

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The Dubai-based carrier will retrofit 21 aircraft currently fitted with recliner Business Class seats over the next 12 months, replacing them with flydubai’s lie-flat seats.

Larger Boeing Space Bins will also replace existing overhead bins, increasing capacity to as many as six standard-sized bags compared with four in a standard overhead bin.

The cabin changes come alongside another fleet expansion, with flydubai taking delivery of 11 additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft during 2026 and moving its fleet beyond 100 aircraft.

11 more aircraft joining in 2026

The planned deliveries comprise seven Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft and four Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft.

flydubai said the additional aircraft form part of its long-term fleet modernisation programme, replacing older aircraft while giving the airline more capacity to expand its network and add seats on routes with higher demand.

Our investment does not stop with the new aircraft. We remain focused on enhancing our existing fleet, ensuring our customers enjoy a seamless and elevated experience when they travel with us. Our new retrofit programme marks another significant investment in our product offering and reflects our commitment to continuously enhancing the flydubai onboard experience.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer at flydubai

More Business Class seats on 737-9 MAX

flydubai’s Boeing 737-9 MAX aircraft are configured with 16 Business Class seats and 156 Economy Class seats.

Some Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft currently have 10 Business Class seats.

The additional premium capacity will allow the airline to accommodate stronger Business Class demand on key international routes and deploy more premium seats across existing services.

Bigger overhead bins across MAX fleet

The cabin retrofit beginning in September will also increase the amount of overhead storage available to passengers.

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Also Read: Dubai’s flydubai reports strong profit, expands network

Boeing’s Space Bins can hold up to six standard-sized bags, compared with four in conventional overhead bins, giving passengers more room for cabin baggage and helping increase storage capacity during boarding.

The latest programme follows flydubai’s previous multimillion-dollar refurbishment of its Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 fleet, which included lie-flat Business Class seats, new Economy Class seats and inflight entertainment.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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