flydubai Increases Frequency on African Routes

Low-cost airline, flydubai has announced its plans to increase the frequency of flights on some of its African routes for the summer 2015 schedule.

From March 29, 2015, the airline will increase services to Juba, the capital of South Sudan from five-weekly to daily, and to Bujumbura in Burundi from twice to three-times-weekly.

The airlines’ operation to Zanzibar which launched in October 2014 has seen excellent demand, and will now be served with four flights per week instead of two. Alexandria in the north of Egypt will also see a flight increase from twice to three-times-daily from June 2015.

Overall, the airline will now operate a total of 78 flights a week to 12 points in East and North Africa. Djibouti was flydubai’s first destination in Africa, and today the airline flies to Dar es Salaam, Addis Ababa, Kigali, Entebbe, Khartoum, Hargeisa, Juba, Bujumbura, Alexandria and Port Sudan.

“We are delighted to offer more flights to Africa,” commented Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer of flydubai. “We were the first UAE carrier to serve Bujumbura, Juba and Zanzibar. We have seen strong demand for travel across our network in Africa, and we look forward to welcoming more passengers on board our flights,” said Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice President Commercial (GCC, Subcontinent and Africa).

flydubai launched six routes between the UAE and East and North Africa in 2014, in line with growing trade and tourism ties between the two countries. This doubled the airlines’ network and made it the third biggest carrier of its category there, and the first to offer a Business Class option to Dubai from destinations such as Juba.

“Whether travelling for leisure or business between Dubai and Africa, we are confident that our passengers will continue to enjoy our Business Class, award-winning In-Flight Entertainment and the ability to connect on our growing network and beyond,” added Sudhir Sreedharan.

Dubai-based national airline, Emirates has also increase its business on the continent, and the UAE has begun promoting Dubai as a gateway for investment into the continent. Over the past two years, Dubai has hosted and annual Africa Global Business Forum in an effort to boost the presence of Gulf businesses and carriers on the continent.

Poppy Marello

Poppy joined the Routesonline team after successfully completing a degree in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University. Poppy has a passion for…