How it started
Foundation and early years
In July 2008, the Dubai government established the airline. Although Flydubai is not part of The Emirates Group, Emirates supported Flydubai during the initial establishing phase.
On 14 July 2008, Flydubai signed a firm order with Boeing at the Farnborough Air Show for 50 Boeing 737-800s with a total value of US$3.74 billion. The first of these aircraft was delivered on 17 May 2009. Scheduled flights commenced on 1 June, with services to Beirut, Lebanon, and Amman, Jordan.
Development since 2015
On 13 February 2013, Flydubai announced that it was in talks with Boeing and Airbus for a 50-aircraft order. On 19 June 2013, the airline announced that it would be adding business class service to its flights. The business class cabin would feature 12 seats between aisle and window, three-course meals, 12-inch televisions, a business class lounge, Italian leather seats to its offering in a bid to cater to business travellers in the emirate, access to more than 200 films, and power outlets suitable for plugs from over 170 countries.
In March 2019, Flydubai suffered considerable losses due to the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft around the world. The state-owned company claims that its growth strategy was severely impacted by the incident, as it had 11 of these aircraft and more than 220 on order. Company CEO Ghaith Al-Ghaith said that an interim settlement agreement was made with Boeing for certain compensation but details of the agreement remain confidential.
From Wikipedia’s article on flydubai, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2