Introduction
FlyDubai is a comparatively new airline company in the UAE. Its first flight was made in 2009, and since then it has been successfully fulfilling its purpose, making thousands of flights every week (Black, 2013). Since FlyDubai is a low-cost airline, it has the benefits and limitations pertaining to such kind of companies. While the disadvantages include some comfort drawbacks (limited services compared to more expensive airlines), the advantages outnumber them.
Analysis
The biggest asset of FlyDubai is its accessibility. People with moderate incomes prefer to use this company for their travel needs as its prices are rather low. In 2013, the chairman of FlyDubai Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum reported its first “profitability hit” and expressed the intention to broaden the scope of activity (Black, 2013, para. 1). In addition to the traditional budget airline facilities, FlyDubai provides its passengers with additional services for a reasonable payment.
The company takes pride in its comfortability and environmental friendliness, presented by loyalty and security of the staff, and by fuel productivity (About FlyDubai, 2016). FlyDubai is a fast-growing company that operates in nearly one hundred destinations (About FlyDubai, 2016). As Sheikh Ahmed remarked, FlyDubai has “firmly established” its position and has a beneficial influence on the UAE (Black, 2013, para. 10).
Despite its success and popularity, FlyDubai has had several dramatic issues during its existence. Most of them were connected with flaps problems and bird strikes and did not lead to fatal outcomes (Airline incidents for airline FlyDubai, 2016). However, there was an incident in the company’s history that put it at serious risk. The first and so far the most terrible catastrophe happened on March 19, 2016, in the Russian airport of Rostov-on-Don (Chance, Cullinane, & Botelho, 2016).
Sixty-two people were killed, including fifty-seven passengers and seven crew members. The plane had been making circles near the airport for several hours and eventually “crashed during a landing attempt” (Chance et al., 2016, para. 1). The investigation of the tragedy involved specialists from several countries and took a lot of time. The most popular version was connected with bad weather conditions: there were severe winds which most likely caused the crash (Chance et al., 2016).
The accident was extremely dramatic and involved people from several countries. Passengers and crew members were from Russia, Ukraine, India, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, and Spain (Gulf News report, 2016). Therefore, the situation required particular care and diplomacy. In order not to put FlyDubai’s image under threat, the company did everything possible to weaken the negative outcomes.
From the very beginning, the spokespeople and the CEO of FlyDubai made sympathetic comments via social media offering their condolences to the families of the tragic victims. Further, the company employed all possible means to spread the information about the quality condition of the plane and to assure its clients that the incident was not the fault of the company. Inviting major specialists from several countries to investigate the case also added up to the company’s credibility and loyalty. Apart from the serious investigation, FlyDubai arranged a “program of hardship payments,” offering twenty thousand dollars to the families of the tragedy’s casualties (Gulf News report, 2016, para. 1).
Conclusion
The way FlyDubai dealt with the crisis was a rather effective one. Despite a horrific incident, the company made everything possible to sustain its popularity and trust rates. Employing social media for handling the situation made it possible to contact people faster and in a more intimate way. The company continues its successful activity and has promising ambitions for further development.
References
About FlyDubai. (2016). Web.
Airline incidents for airline FlyDubai (2016). Web.
Black, D. (2013). First profits posted by budget carrier FlyDubai. The National. Web.
Chance, M., Cullinane, S., & Botelho, G. (2016). FlyDubai plane crashes in Russia; 62 aboard reported dead. CNN. Web.
Gulf News report (2016). FlyDubai plane crash: airline to give victims’ families $20,000 each. Gulf News. Web.