Dubai-based flydubai is growing its Africa network to 11 destinations across 10 countries, with CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith saying the LCC expects to add more routes as its fleet expands.

Flydubai plans to start its first service to Kenya early next year, launching flights to the coastal city of Mombasa in the southeast of the country along the Indian Ocean. The move will see the airline go head-to-head with Kenya Airways on the 2,280-mi. (1,981-nm) sector.

Flights from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Mombasa’s Moi International Airport (MBA) will commence on Jan. 17, 2024, operating four times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Emirates will codeshare on this route, opening more options for connections through DXB.

“Dubai has seen steady growth in investment from Africa since Expo 2020, with more than 26,000 African companies registered with Dubai Chamber,” Al Ghaith says. “Our direct flights to Mombasa from January and our growing operations in Africa will further support free flows of trade and tourism between the UAE and the East African markets.”

Al Ghaith says that the Boeing 737-operator sees “a lot of potential” to further expand in Africa, adding to existing its existing points of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Alexandria, Egypt; Asmara, Eritrea; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Djibouti, Entebbe, Uganda; Hargeisa, Somaliland; Juba, South Sudan; Mogadishu, Somalia; and Zanzibar, Tanzania. The growth will be in tandem with its fleet expansion, he adds.

Flydubai has a fleet of 46 737-8s, three 737-9s and 30 737-800s, with a further 137 737-8s on order. Al Ghaith said in May that the carrier was in talks with both Boeing and Airbus about increasing its narrowbody orderbook.

In the Dubai-Mombasa market, Kenya Airways offers four nonstop flights per week using 737-800s, operating on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The service has a Nairobi (NBO)-MBA-DXB routing alongside the airline’s 6X-weekly NBO-DXB nonstop.

Kenya’s flag-carrier started flying from Mombasa to Dubai in December 2022, becoming the sole airline to connect the Kenyan city with the Middle East region by nonstop flights. Prior to that, Mombasa and Dubai were linked by direct service until March 2019, when Rwandair ended its 3X-weekly Kigali (KGL)-MBA-DXB service in favor of increasing KGL-DXB from 4X-weekly to daily.

Rwandair’s exit from the market came shortly after Qatar Airways opened a 4X-weekly Doha (DOH)-MBA route, which operated using Airbus A320s from December 2018 until the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. However, Mombasa is yet to return to the Oneworld alliance member’s network.

Flydubai will likely be targeting leisure passengers on the new route to Mombasa. Cargo will also be a factor, offering increased belly capacity for the export of seafood and fresh produce to the Middle East.

Looking at the traffic flow on Qatar Airways’ service from Doha to Mombasa in 2019, there were 22,381 one-way passengers traveling on the route. Of those, 94% of passengers traveled from destinations behind Doha, with just 5.5% of traffic being local.