flydubai to touch Mattala

Shirajiv Sirimane

The agent for flydubai, Chairman, Jetwing air (pvt) ltd, Director Sunil Peiris with Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive officer. Picture Shirajiv Sirimane

flydubai Airlines is seriously considering operating flights to Mattala airport soon. Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive officer, flydubai Airlines said in Colombo yesterday said that their business strategy is to operate flights to secondary airports and Mattala is in their radar.

Speaking to Daily News Business he said flydubai's Sri Lanka operations have been very profitable and they have also increased their frequency from five a week to a ‘daily’ flight. Owned by the Dubai government , he said that the airline which operates on a low cost basis also changed their arrival and departure times. “Since we started flights to Colombo 18 months ago, we have seen a steady

increase in demand bringing us profits from Colombo operations,” he said.

Established in March 2008, flydubai is Dubai’s first low-cost airline and the fastest growing start-up airline in the world. Since commencing operations in June 2009, the airline has established an operational route network of more than 45 destinations across GCC, Middle East, North Africa, Indian Sub-Continent, Asia and the fringes of Europe and has built a fleet of 22 aircraft. He said that the rescheduled time table has also allowed them to pick up more tourists from new markets, such as Russia and the CIS.” Overall traffic growth between Dubai and Colombo increased 30% in 2010 and 7% last year, boosting the Sri Lankan economy and tourism industry. In line with this, flydubai has also seen a surge of passengers flying to Sri Lanka with a 125% increase last year over 2010.

“Sri Lanka is one success story of flydubai and we are grateful to the government for allowing us to fly here daily,” said Al Ghaith.