Tenth year excites flydubai
10 years ago, on June 1, 2009, flydubai’s
first flight took off from Dubai International for Beirut Rafic Hariri
International Airport, and it marked the beginning of a new chapter in the
history of aviation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A week later on June 9, 2009,
flydubai marked the start of operations to its first point in Africa,
Alexandria.
Today the Dubai-based carrier has
built a network of 12 points in Africa, most of which had been underserved with
very few or no direct airlinks to the UAE.
Commenting on the 10th anniversary
of the start of flydubai’s operations, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al
Maktoum, Chairman of flydubai, said: “flydubai was launched with a mandate to
open new markets and make travel more accessible to more people. I am happy to
see flydubai deliver on that commitment which has seen the airline connect 71
previously underserved cities to Dubai, allowing a population of 1.5 billion
easier access to one of the world’s leading aviation hubs.”
He added that “celebrating
flydubai’s 10th anniversary, I am pleased to see the airline become another
Dubai success story and look forward to their continued success in the years to
come. I would like to thank all those who have worked tremendously hard to
enable the airline to deliver this wonderful team effort.”
Reflecting on the last 10 years
and looking to the years ahead, Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer, flydubai,
said, “flydubai’s commitment to making travel more convenient and more
affordable has only grown stronger over the past 10 years. We realised early on
that travel is about bridging the distance between people and we will continue
to change the way people travel around the region. We are pleased to see that
more than 70 million passengers chose to flydubai since the start of our operations.”
“It’s the vision of our
leadership and the continued investment in the country’s infrastructure that
has enabled the airline to grow the demand for travel. We have remained agile,
committed to efficiency and delivered reliable services keeping our customers
at the heart of our operations. This would not have been possible without the
hard work and dedication of all our employees. I thank them and our passengers
for being part of our journey and look forward to many more years to come as we
mark our 10th anniversary celebrating bringing people together,” added Al
Ghaith.
flydubai has grown its operations
from six aircraft operating out of Terminal 2 at Dubai International (DXB) in
2009, to operating more than 1,500 weekly flights from its home base in
Terminal 2 with flights to select destinations operating out of Terminal 3
(DXB).
Since commencing operations, it
has created a network of more than 90 destinations in 47 countries across
Africa (12 points), Central Asia and the Caucasus (10 points), Europe (28
points), the GCC and the Middle East (26 points) and the Indian Subcontinent
(18 points). flydubai carried 3.58 million passengers on its African routes
between 2014 and 2019, more than double the number of passengers carried for
the same duration between 2009 and 2014 (1.72 million).
The fast-growing economies of the
countries of Africa are important trading markets for the UAE and their
increasing prosperity will ensure that their contribution of visitor numbers to
Dubai will similarly grow strongly.
Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice
President, Commercial Operations (UAE, GCC, Indian Subcontinent and Africa) at
flydubai, said: “Africa is an important market for flydubai and we are
delighted that 5.3 million passengers have chosen to flydubai from our network
in Africa since the airline’s launch in 2009. We continue to see strong demand
for direct airlinks and last year flydubai contributed 13% of the total growth
at Dubai Airports for the African market. Over the last 10 years, I am pleased
to have seen our network in Africa grow to 12 destinations in 09 countries. Our
passengers recognise the benefits of our service from Dubai’s aviation hub to a
number of the largest countries in Africa including access to increased
connectivity.”
In under 10 years, flydubai has
grown an extensive network across Africa and currently offers flights to Addis
Ababa, Alexandria, Asmara, Djibouti, Entebbe, Hargeisa, Juba, Khartoum and Port
Sudan as well as Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
There have also been a number of
milestones since flydubai’s inception in 2009, the most recent being announcing
an extensive codeshare partnership with Emirates.
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