Three
years since launching operations to Baku, Azerbaijan, on 22 November
2009, flydubai has established flights to 16 destinations across 11
countries in the CEE and CIS region.
It
also has the most comprehensive network of all Middle Eastern
carriers to this area and is the only scheduled operator flying
direct to Dubai from Belgrade, Skopje, Bishkek, Kharkiv, Donetsk and
Tbilisi.
Through
adding new aircraft and destinations each year, flydubai has opened
up previously under-served markets, bringing affordable travel to
more people, more often. New figures that highlight its remarkable
regional development include:
• Witnessing
a 45% year-on-year growth in the total number of flydubai’s annual
flights to the CIS and CEE markets between October 2011 and September
2012.
• Increasing
the number of monthly flights to this market by 109% in September
2012 compared to September 2011.
flydubai’s
CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith, said: “More than 40% of our route
development this year has taken place in CEE and the CIS. The
geographical prioritisation of these market has been key to
flydubai’s continued growth and highlights our commitment to
offering real choice and excellent quality service for passengers
while boosting tourism and trade between our regions. flydubai has
also been instrumental in increasing air traffic between the UAE and
Russia by 85%; and the UAE and Ukraine by 112%.”
The
latest figures from Dubai International Airport reveal that passenger
traffic from the CIS and Russia climbed 54.4% in the first half of
this year compared to the same period in 2011, in large part due to
flydubai’s on-going expansion in this region. Developments in the
past 12 months include launching a twice weekly service to the
Russian cities of Kazan and Ufa late last year, along with starting
the first ever direct service to Kharkiv, Ukraine from Dubai in
addition to Kiev and Donetsk. flydubai continues to increase its
frequency to the region with adding a fourth weekly flight to Yerevan
from 29 November 2012.
Offering
58 regular flights per week, flydubai’s CEE and CIS network
includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia,
Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine providing
an array of destinations appealing to the leisure, business
travellers and those visiting friends and family.