FlyDubai Cancels 65 Boeing 737 MAX Orders

Isnt FlyDubai supposedly a low cost carrier? I don’t think SilkAir was a low cost carrier. It was more of a regional subsidiary for Singapore. I’d assume that’s why they’re not integrated / or why the government doesn’t want them integrated.

Like used car prices so are "used" airplanes witness Delta's recent buy. This trend will continue for the immediate future. That coupled with Boeing's inability to get out of it's own way new plane orders will continue to decline then flatten out.

Perhaps they want to keep the brands separate, either to keep Emirates as a more luxurious and long haul airline brand with big planes, or to keep more redundancies to support more jobs. Flydubai has a bit of a more low cost model to it, which helps to fill that part of the market. If they were integrated into Emirates, they would either have to become full service, or they would stay a lower cost operation. The former would cost more and potentially may not seem like a worthwhile investment for the market they have, and Dubai would lose out on the LLC market, with other foreign airlines coming in to that spot. Meanwhile, the latter would "hurt" the Emirates brand of being a full service airline (like Etihad with their new A320 cabins). By keeping them separate, Emirates is able to take the premium passengers, while Flydubai captures those who would be more likely to fly other airlines. I agree though that we should see more cooperation between the two airlines though.

Part of the problem between FlyDubai and Emirates is the terrible/lack of terminal coordination at DXB.
EK built its model around flying big airplanes and thought it only needed facilities for its own benefit to do that. Anything other than large widebodies weren't part of its plan.

As for the MAX cancellations, this is why Boeing has been able to offer white tail aircraft, largely to US airlines, for deep discounts and many US airlines have taken advantage - and will as the US domestic market is in better shape than most of the rest of the world.

Delta simply chose not to add the MAX - likely because GE won't allow Delta to overhaul the engines on its own as Delta does with nearly every other aircraft in its fleet.
Now that most US airlines that could be interested in the MAX have bought white tails, Boeing will likely struggle to place yet another round of cancelled MAXs while trying to rebuild production.

This sort of clumsy inefficiency is what happens when airlines are owned by absurdly rich oil tycoons. It’s not a business to them. It’s a cute little hobby, and a way to burn off some of their billions.

Say what you will about BA or American or Spirit, but at least they’re run by people who understand the business.

What seems to be always forgotten by many people who never worked in this (or any) industry is that you can not just snap your fingers and "merge" companies, no matter how many advantages it gives you on paper.

Besides the obvious things like operation, cost structure, corporate culture, facilities, brand (flydubai not so great vs emirates very upscale) there are issues with regulatory compliance, suppliers, long term contracts etc. If you'd say today we merge it would still take years to complete that. But you can't say today we merge because first you gotta take a few years to really come to a point where you know if it makes sense or not, which may or may not be already the process happening currently.

I flew with them from Salzburg to Dubai. They offered a solid soft and hard product and I paid around $1,000. At that time, they used a different terminal in Dubai, so if you have a connecting flight, you better run girl.

A recent release from Emirates left me with the impression that Emirates wants to eventually merge but they want FlyDubai to get itself in order and show a history of what kind of airline they are on their own before bringing them completely into a merger.

I know they are attempting to have FlyDubai use their narrow metal to operate the short or low demand routes and feed traffic into Emirates for long haul routes. They are also coordinating schedules for connections and trying to avoid directly competing in any way.

The whole situation seems odd, but I would guess it is a cultural divide that I don't fully grasp.

In short, it seems Emirates really wants to merge but doesn't approve of how the FlyDubai business has been run so they won't move forward with a merger until they are confident in the people and the organization. Just my opinion.

I thought the whole partnership was strange.

Less money for Boeing to donate to Big Lie politicians.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/15/american-airlines-overturn-election-january-6/

Not to mention IT systems. That can be a real nightmare for any merger. The vast majority of mergers actually end up contributing a net negative value (eg 1+1=1.5, and not 2.5)