Dubai, June 25 (IANS) The proposed new low-cost airline to be launched by the Dubai government will be named FlyDubai, it was announced here Wednesday. Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum chose the name from a shortlist prepared by chairman of the new airline Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, a statement issued by the airline said.

“FlyDubai is a simple, yet powerful call to action. It makes an immediate link to our core business, which is providing no-frills flights to bring people to and from Dubai,” Sheikh Ahmed said in the statement.

In March, the Dubai government had announced the launch of the new airline but made it clear that it would be separate from Dubai’s original official carrier Emirates.

However, Emirates would help launch the new airline and its chairman Sheikh Ahmed was also made the chairman of the new airline and a senior Emirates executive was made its chief executive.

“FlyDubai’s operations will potentially cover an area of some two billion inhabitants. It will support Dubai’s commercial and tourism sectors by serving a new set of travellers and providing them with affordable air links to popular, high-demand destinations,” Sheikh Ahmed said.

Stating that a lot of groundwork had already been done, he said FlyDubai was on track to launch its first flights by the middle of 2009.

FlyDubai will initially focus on regional flights within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and surrounding countries.

In March, Sheikh Ahmed had said that the new airline would fly to destinations that could be covered within four-and-a-half hours from Dubai.

“Since the government announced the formation of Dubai’s new low cost airline in March, it has been all systems go,” FlyDubai chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said in the statement.

“We are recruiting for key positions, evaluating aircraft options and routes, working out our pricing and distribution strategy, and putting in place the structure and operational resources for the business.”

He said that in terms of FlyDubai’s customer proposition, the focus would be on keeping things simple and flexible.

“We want to make it easy for our customers to interact with us, and to have more control on how they book, purchase and select value-added services to their basic flight experience,” Al Ghaith said.