flydubai’s inaugural flight touched down earlier at Kilimanjaro International Airport, increasing capacity to Tanzania and further expanding its network in Africa to twelve destinations.
flydubai will offer six flights a week to Kilimanjaro, three of which are via a stop in the capital, Dar es Salaam and will increase the total number of flights to Tanzania to 14 flights a week.
As part of the inaugural programme, flydubai showcased its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft which it unveiled for the first time at the Dubai Airshow in November 2017.
The service to Kilimanjaro sees the total number of flydubai’s destinations in Tanzania increase to three, along with Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
The carrier began operations to Tanzania in 2014 and has become increasingly popular among travellers from Dubai and the GCC as a tourist destination, and is seeing a steady growth in passenger numbers.
Kilimanjaro International Airport is located between the regions of Kilimanjaro and Arusha in northern Tanzania.
The airport is the major gateway to the Kilimanjaro region, a main international tourism destination that includes Mount Kilimanjaro, Arusha National Park, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park.
Only a few international carriers operate to Kilimanjaro and flydubai will be the first airline to provide direct air links from the UAE.
Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive, flydubai, commented on the inaugural: “With our service to Kilimanjaro, we are responding to a growing demand for travel between the UAE and Tanzania.
“flydubai is the first UAE airline to offer direct air links to Kilimanjaro with the aim to connect this market to Dubai and beyond, and offer travellers more choice and flexibility.
“Passengers will have the opportunity to connect from Dubai onwards to more than 250 destinations.”
Emirates will codeshare on this route and as part of the Emirates flydubai partnership, passengers will have greater choice for onward travel from Dubai to hundreds of destinations across the world.
flydubai operates flights to twelve destinations in Africa, including Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Asmara, Djibouti, Entebbe, Hargeisa, Juba, Khartoum and Port Sudan, as well as Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.