Dubai – Mubasher: Flydubai on Wednesday reported turning to a loss in the full-year 2018.

Net losses recorded $43.5 million in 2018, against a profit of $43 million in the second half of 2018, the UAE’s state-owned company said in a statement.

“Our performance in 2018 was impacted largely due to increasing fuel costs, rising interest rates and unfavourable currency exchange movements,” Francois Oberholzer, chief financial officer of flydubai, commented.

Revenues of the low-cost airline rose 12.4% to $1.7 billion included a price impact of $112 million in fuel costs.

Fuel costs represented 29.8% of the company’s annual operating costs in 2018, compared to 25% in 2017.

Over the course of the previous year, more than 11 million passengers travelled across the Flydubai network.

“We optimised our network by increasing flight frequencies on existing routes and adding new routes and as they become established they will support our further growth,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of Flydubai, said.