flydubai announced its Annual Results for 2014 and reported a net profit of USD 68 million an increase of 12.3% compared to 2013 with total revenue of USD 1.2 billion for the 12-month period, ending 31 December 2014.
Operational Performance
Passenger numbers: flydubai carried 7.25 million passengers in 2014 and has carried 24.3 million since it launched its operations. It saw an increase in passenger numbers between 2013 and 2014 in Africa (14%), Central Asia (57%), Europe (11%) and the Subcontinent (11%).
Network: in a year that saw the airline add 23 new routes, creating a network of 86 destinations, flydubai also increased frequency on many of its existing routes. Weekly flight frequencies to Beirut increased from 14 to 21, to Kuwait from 53 to 77, to Muscat from 28 to 41, to Salalah from 3 to 5 and Tbilisi which went to a daily service. The airline now operates 1,400 flights per week.
Its network across its geographic focus grew by the number of routes in Africa (100%), in Central Asia (66%), Europe including Russia (40%), the GCC (7%), Middle East (30%) and in the Subcontinent (38%).
Aircraft deliveries: All aircraft delivered since August 2013 have been configured with Business Class. flydubai took delivery of eight new Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft and ended the year with a fleet of 43 aircraft.
In October, it completed to schedule its rolling retrofit programme to configure the existing aircraft in its fleet with Business Class. The first seven aircraft it received between 2009 and 2010 were not part of the retrofit programme.
Business Class: flydubai ended the year with 70% of its routes offering Business Class. During the course of 2015, it will announce the remaining routes to receive this service and together with the successful completion of the 12-month retrofit programme flydubai will be able to offer a consistent product for its passengers across its network. It also enhanced the business class offering on the ground with the opening of the flydubai Business Lounge at Terminal 2, Dubai International.
Terminal 2, Dubai International: The extension and refurbishment of Terminal 2 has provided a better customer experience. To further enhance the convenience of the airport 15 self-service kiosks have been opened for all passengers travelling to the routes that allow this facility.
Al Maktoum International: the 80-day period of the runway enhancement project between May and July at Dubai International saw flydubai operate a number of flights from this airport ensuring additional capacity for its passengers during this period. With the successful completion of the project all of flydubai’s operations resumed from Terminal 2, Dubai International on schedule.
Staff numbers: flydubai continued to strengthen its experienced team increasing the number of staff to 2,883 including 571 pilots, 1,235 cabin crew and 221 engineers representing more than 111 nationalities across flydubai’s workforce.
Awards: flydubai received a number of Awards during the year recognising its easy to use, technically advanced inflight entertainment system, the achievement of its Cargo division to introduce electronic Air Waybills (e-AWB) across its operations, two Awards for the debut Sukuk issuance as well as the recognition for excellence in its sector by CAPA, the Centre for Aviation.
Cost Performance
Total revenue and operating income increased by 19.1% to USD 1.2 billion with a capacity increase (ASKM) of 9.3%.
EBITDAR[
1] growth is in line with the increase in revenue and is at a healthy rate of revenue at 22.1%.
Fuel remains the single largest cost at 36% of the total operating costs and though lower than the previous year has benefited from the downward trend in fuel prices starting from the last quarter of 2014. Currently 30% of fuel requirements for 2015 are hedged.
Other ancillary revenue items including inflight entertainment, onboard sales, seat preferences, checked baggage allowance, car rental, hotel bookings, travel insurance and visa facilitation services continue to be strong and comprise 14.4% of total revenue.
flydubai Cargo has secured ACC3 EU certification which will allow the airline to transport Cargo to the new European routes. The busiest cargo routes include Colombo, Doha, Juba, Kiev, Kuwait and Muscat. Continued demand for cargo services saw an average of 3,000 tons carried each month and revenue growth was 11.8% compared to 2013.
Financing: flydubai continued its strategy to diversify its sources of funding. In November it issued a landmark debut Sukuk transaction successfully raising USD 500 million.
[1]EBITDAR is calculated as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and rental costs
Source: flydubai