flydubai appoints new COO

flydubai, the new low-cost airline formed by the government of Dubai in March, announced today that Kenneth Gile, has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer.

Captain Gile joins flydubai from Skybus Airlines, an American low cost carrier, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer for four years. Before that Captain Gile worked in a variety of positions at Southwest Airlines over a period of 25 years, including Chief Pilot and Director of Flight Operations.

As Chief Operating Officer of flydubai, Captain Gile will be responsible for the day to day running of the airline and have specific responsibility for strategic planning, in-flight services, ground operations, flight operations, maintenance and engineering, as well as acting as the Director of Operations.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer of flydubai, said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Captain Ken Gile to the position of Chief Operating Officer of flydubai. Ken has a wealth of experience working with low cost carriers and we are proud to have been able to attract him to Dubai to work with flydubai. Ken’s experience will be invaluable in getting flydubai off the ground.

“This is our first appointment and a very important one for us. Now that we have made this key appointment, we can move forward with the work of getting our airline ready to begin commercial operations in mid 2009.”

Captain Gile, said: “I am honoured to have been given the chance to get involved with flydubai in such an early stage in its development. This is a very exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to contributing to the success of flydubai.

“I have worked in aviation my whole career, and much of that time has been spent working with low cost carriers, so I believe I have a lot to offer flydubai. The flydubai business model is strong and we are working hard to assemble an unbeatable product and a top class team of individuals. I am confident flydubai is going to be an extremely successful airline and I am proud to be a part of it.”

Captain Gile started his career in the United States Airforce. After six years in the military, he moved to Jeddah with Saudi Arabian Airlines. Captain Gile then returned to the US, where he joined Southwest Airlines as a Pilot and worked his way up the ranks to become Chief Pilot and Director of Flight Operations.

Captain Gile is married with three children and seven grandchildren.

flydubai was set up by the government of Dubai in March 2008. Last month flydubai placed the largest ever order for Boeing 737 aircraft by a gulf based low cost carrier, when it order 54 737-800s at the Farnborough Air Show.