Dubai: After nearly seven years of operations, flydubai saw its first tragedy on Saturday when one of its aircraft crashed in Russia killing all passengers and crew on board.
Flydubai started operations in June 2009 with a maiden flight to Beirut in Lebanon. The airline instantly started turning heads. Set up by the government of Dubai to replicate the success of European and American low cost carriers it ordered 50 Boeing 737-800s in 2008.
On Saturday, flydubai flight 981 carrying 62 passengers and crew crashed and exploded attempting to land at an airport in Rostov-on-Don in southwestern Russia exactly 8 years after the airline was set up on March 19, 2008. It launched flights 15 months later in 2009.
Flydubai has focused on cities underserved or not served at all with direct flights to Dubai, the Middle East’s largest aviation hub. Today, it flies to around 90 destinations in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Russia and former Soviet Republic States with a fleet of 50 Boeing 737-800s.
Gaith Al Gaith, a former Emirates executive, has led flydubai as chief executive since 2008. The airline shares its chairman, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, with Emirates, its sister carrier and the world’s biggest airline on international routes.
Flydubai operates from Dubai International and Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) and competes with a no-frills model against Sharjah-based Air Arabia.
In November 2013, the airline ordered 111 Boeing 737-800s, including 100 Boeing 737-800MAXs worth $11.4 billion. Before Saturday, one of the airline’s worst safety incidents was when a bullet struck one of its aircraft landing at Baghdad International Airport in 2015.
