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UAE’s budget carriers, Flydubai and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, have expanded their network in destinations mostly outside the GCC region, as air travel recovery continues its momentum.
The Dubai-based budget carrier said on Friday that starting next year, it will start flights to Cagliari, Sardinia; Corfu, Greece; Milan, Italy and Krabi and Pattaya in Thailand. From November 24 this year, Flydubai will also resume flights to Saudi Arabia’s Hofuf.
Since the start of the year, Flydubai has launched flights to more than 20 destinations including Pisa and Catania in Italy, Osh in Kyrgyzstan and Samarkand and Namangan in Uzbekistan.
With the new routes, the airline will expand its network to 113 destinations in 53 countries, the largest the carrier will serve since it started its operations.
As for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the latest route will serve passengers travelling to Uzbekistan’s Tashkent, the largest city in Central Asia.
The new flight will commence in January 2023 and operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The air travel market has continued to recover on the back of easing COVID-19 restrictions. Global traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), rose 67.7% year-on-year in August 2022.
Passenger traffic is now at 73.7% of pre-crisis levels, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Daniel Luiz)
