The CEO of Flydubai, Ghaith Al Gaith, stated on Wednesday that the company had chosen Airbus A321neo jets at the Dubai Airshow this week due to the range and size, but they were not ruling out a new order with long-time supplier Boeing.
In an interview, Ghaith Al Gaith said that the door was open to Airbus since the 2008 launch of the airline, but that Boeing was “my home” and that the U.S. planemaker would be better than it was during its recent crisis.
Al Gaith added that “The door was never closed, because whenever we go through a process of evaluation, we put everything on the table, and I believe that whenever you make an order, of that magnitude, you have to scale or you have to evaluate it on the basis of its merits.”
Airbus on Tuesday secured a temporary bid of 150 A321neo jets on flydubai valued at $24 billion, with the option of another 100 aircraft at the expense of Boeing, which was the initial supplier of the rapidly expanding airline.
He refused to comment on whether flydubai would declare another order of Boeing jets at the November 17-21 air show. He further said, “We cannot say for certain what we’re going to announce.”
“Boeing to me is almost like my home. And I’m very close with the leadership in Boeing,” carrier CEO said, citing that he saw the planemaker’s “dynamics” transformation recently.
