Flydubai makes maiden flight to South Sudan

The inaugural flight, FZ61, touched down at Juba Airport on Sunday with Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of Flydubai and Buti Al Ghandi, managing director of Saeed Mohammed Al Ghandi & Sons on board.

The Vice President, Dr Riek Macha Teny, welcomed the Flydubai and UAE media delegation with a celebratory ceremony held at the Presidential Terminal.

Al Ghaith, said: “We are delighted to have started flights to Juba today, which is our 56th destination in operation across our route network. We are excited about the trade and travel opportunities that this new route brings to both the Republic of South Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.”

The addition of Juba further broadens Flydubai’s network in Africa and opens up more routes to previously underserved markets. The carrier now serves six points in the continent: Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Djibouti, Juba, Khartoum and Port Sudan.

“We would like to take the opportunity to thank the authorities for the warm welcome. The affordable, reliable and high-quality service we offer will enable passengers to travel more frequently between our two nations and onwards via one stop in Dubai aviation’s hub,” added Al Ghaith.

Elsewhere, Flydubai started it’s twice a week service to Mineralnye Vody, its fifth destination in Russia. The carrier will inaugurate two more new routes later in April, adding Osh in Kyrgyzstan and Dushanbe in Tajikistan to its expanding network. To support the rapid network growth, Flydubai will take delivery six new aircraft before the end of 2013, bringing its fleet to 34.