The Dubai based budget carrier, Fly Dubai, revealed its plan to expand its flight operations between Dubai and African cities.
In the side lines of the Dubai Airshow, Sudhir Sreedharan, senior vice president commercial operations, told The Reporter that Fly Dubai wants to expand its footprint in Africa. The low cost carrier flies to 12 cities in Africa including to Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Juba, Hargeisa, Djibouti and Asmara. The budget airline, which was established by government of Dubai in 2009, has 76 weekly frequencies between Dubai and various African cities.
Sreedharan said Fly Dubai is planning to open flights from eight to ten cities in Africa in the next two years. "Africa is a promising market. We see enough reasons for more capacity to Africa especially in light of the growing middle class," he said.
Fly Dubai will start a six weekly flight to Kilimanjaro as of December 15 and increase its four weekly flights to Zanzibar to eight. "Other cities are under study. We will launch them when and as we are ready," he said.
Ethiopian Airlines, which has a vast flight network in Africa, flies to Middle Eastern cities. The big three –Emirates, Qatar and Etihad – also operate between the Middle East and Africa. The competition between Africa and the Middle East is getting fierce.
Sreedharan said competition is healthy. "The more important point is that customers will have more options. And that choice drives airlines to ensure customers satisfaction and invest in better technologies trying to grab the increase their customer base."
Sreedharan said that even though there is increasing number of competitors, the demand for air travel is also growing. "We see an increase in the number of people flying in Africa. In the cities where we started flying we have seen a surge in air travel demand. Asmara is a good example where we have a daily flight."
Fly Dubai has a thrice weekly flight between Dubai and Addis Ababa. Sreedharan said there is the capacity to increase the flight to daily but the existing flight traffic right between Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates restricts the airline operation to Addis Ababa only to three. "We are open to negotiate with the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority. We hope that negotiations in the future will pay off and we can see more flights between Dubai and Addis Ababa."
Fly Dubai also wants to serve the Dubai Nairobi route. However, the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority has denied traffic rights that allows the airline to operate to east African nation. The Dubai carrier asked for Kenyan Authorities for traffic rights some five years ago but to date it did not yet get official response.
Kenya Airways flies to Dubai and Emirates serves the Dubai-Nairobi route. "We know that Nairobi is a key market in East Africa. We will continue our deliberation with Kenyan Authorities and we hope that we will eventually get the permit to land in Nairobi."
Sreedharan said that Fly Dubai's flight to leisure destinations in Africa such as Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro drives more tourism in the African continent. The budget carrier wants to open new routes to leisure destinations in Africa in the next two years. "But this effort is hindered by lack of traffic rights. There are open liberal policies in some destinations that allows us to go in and stimulate traffic and some other countries nominate to deliberate."
Established by the government of Dubai in 2009 Fly Dubai has created a network of more than 95 destinations in 44 countries. It opened up 67 new routes that did not previously have direct air links to Dubai or were not served a UAE national carrier from Dubai. The low cost carrier operates a single fleet type of 58 Next Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft and will take delivery of more than 100 aircraft by the end of 2023.
Fly Dubai operates brand new B737 which some of them have business class seats unlike most other low cost carriers. The airline has ordered for 76 new B737MXA 8 aircraft in 2013 and it unveiled the first of this Boeing's newest aircraft at the Dubai Airshow that was held at Al Maktoum International Airport from November12-16.
Boeing 737MAX is a twine engine narrow body aircraft. Powered by General Electric's (GE) engines Fly Dubai's MAX has 156 economy and 10 seats in lavish business class. Captain Alex Fecteau, director of marketing at Boeing Business Jets, told The Reporter that the Max burns 14 percent less fuel than the B737NG and has less noise. "It has a sophisticated flight deck, large display, and comfortable cabin. The interior design is superb and customers will enjoy full flatbed seats in business class," Fecteau said.
In 2016 Fly Dubai transported ten million passengers and reported revenue of five billion Dirhams and 36 million in profit.
Fly Dubai's static display at the Dubai Airshow attracted thousands of visitors. The Dubai Airshow is organized by Tarsus Middle East every other year. This year's airshow attracted 1,200 exhibitors and 72,000 visitors. More than 160 aircraft were displayed at the Air Show. The airshow and exhibition was opened by his highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, on November 12.
Source: Fly Dubai to expand its operations in Africa
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