Airlines slash fares to attract summer visitors

posted on 21/06/2009: 19 views

Dubai's low-cost carrier flydubai has not changed its strategy as a result of the current economic climate and has experienced higher load factor than anticipated in its three weeks of operations, the airline's chief executive officer said on Saturday.

The airline announced an air fare sale on Friday that would slash prices on some routes by 50 per cent from June 22 to September 14.

The success of the sale, which begins at midnight tonight (June21) with flights to Beirut, Amman, Damascus and Alexandria from Dh125, will be evaluated and refined, said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, in a statement to Khaleej Times.

He said the sale was part of its strategy to encourage people to travel more often and was not a reaction to a worldwide drop in passenger traffic. "Our strategy has not been affected by the economic climate, the flydubai sale is part of our long-term objective,” Al Ghaith said. "The flydubai sale will be a regular feature.”

He said the demand for the airline, which has launched five destinations in three weeks, had been greater than anticipated. "It's very early for us to comment on our load factor and revenue as we have not even been in operation for one month. However, to date we have been experiencing higher load factor than we anticipated at this stage and we are very pleasantly surprised by both the load factor and revenue achieved so far,” he remarked.

Other airlines in the UAE, including national carrier Etihad and low-cost carrier Air Arabia, have also launched deals during a traditionally quieter summer period.

Etihad is running a ‘June Festival' with deals to European destinations, New York and Johannesburg.

Air Arabia is offering deals around the region and spokesperson Housam Raydan said the load factor had not slipped substantially, despite the launch of flydubai, economic crisis and the approach of summer.

Air Arabia's load factor during the first quarter averaged 81 per cent this year, compared with 83 to 84 per cent last year. "It's too early to call summer load factor,” Raydan said. – Khaleej Times

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