Dubai’s budget carrier, flydubai, said on Wednesday it will double its network in Russia to eight points and add additional services in Ukraine, doubling its footprint in the two countries as well emphasizing the growing importance of the CIS region to its operations.
In Russia, the carrier will launch flights to Mineralnye Vody on April 16, followed by Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd on September 13, whereas operations to Krasnodar will commence a week later on September 20, flydubai said in a statement.
It added that the route map in Ukraine will also expand to include the only direct services from Dubai to the Black Sea resort of Odessa as well as Dnepropetrovsk in the east of the country, with flights to Odessa to begin on September 15, the same day the carrier adds capacity to the capital, Kiev, to which it will fly double daily. Services to Dnepropetrovsk, meanwhile, will begin on September 18.
These additional operations bring flydubai’s network to 18 points in the CIS region — “more than any other Middle East carrier”, the carrier said.
“Russia and Ukraine are two of flydubai’s key markets. We have seen steady passenger growth over the past couple of years in both countries. Our strategy of targeting regional airports has been a significant factor in our growth in the region,” flydubai’s CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith, said in a statement.
Additionally, flydubai has already announced six new routes this year, increasing its network to more than 60 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Asia, CIS and Central & Eastern Europe.
