Flydubai to expand Central and Eastern Europe

Flydubai on Wednesday announced expansion of its Central and Eastern Europe routes as the low-cost carrier added Bucharest in Romania and Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia. After the latest expansion, the budget airline’s network in Central & Eastern Europe reached 15 points across 10 countries.Since the launch of the first flight to Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2009, the airline has gone on to start operations to a number of key destinations in the region including: Armenia; Georgia; Kyrgyzstan; Russia; Serbia; Turkmenistan; and Ukraine and is the only scheduled operator flying from Dubai to Belgrade, Donetsk and Kharkiv. It’s a big move for flydubai to expand this far out of the GCC and they wouldn’t be doing it if they were not going to line up more European destinations, according to an aviation analyst. “Flydubai’s foray into Europe starts what is arguably a new phase of their expansion plans that will mean less reliance on the GCC market for traffic. Starting dual routes to. Skopje and Bucharest not only puts flydubai into the EU, it also connects that part of Europe to Dubai and the rest of the Middle East,” Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, told Khaleej Times. Flydubai’s new services to Bucharest and Skopje, meanwhile, will allow travellers from the UAE to take advantage of low-cost fares to another two emerging destinations in Central & Eastern Europe. The three-times weekly flights to Bucharest will begin on October 1, 2012 with the twice-weekly service to Skopje commencing on October 18, 2012. “Our two latest routes illustrate flydubai’s commitment to expanding connectivity from the Middle East to new destinations that have historically been underserved. This offers more choice to our customers, increasing international travel options and avenues for trade. Furthermore, our base in Dubai provides the sizeable Romanian and Macedonian expatriate populations around the globe with affordable links to their home nations,” Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer, flydubai, said in a statement. In parallel to flydubai’s expanding presence in Central & Eastern Europe, visitor numbers to Dubai from the region continue to grow. Latest figures from Dubai Airports revealed an increase of more than 35 per cent during the first four months of 2012 in comparison to the same period last year.