flydubai appoints Chief Operating Officer

flydubai, a new low cost airline formed by the government of Dubai in March, has appointed Kenneth Gile 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, "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 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 grown up children and seven grandchildren.

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