flydubai Announces City of Lights, Karachi as Next Destination

Today’s announcement is the sixth new route announcement within a span of four weeks, bringing flydubai’s growing route network to an impressive 19 destinations.

Pakistan is home to many of the expatriate workers in the UAE and the low-cost flights to Karachi, popularly referred to as the City of lights, will provide an excellent opportunity to make the return trip to see friends and family more often. flydubai will operate five flights a week to the South Asian city of Pakistan from June 21^st and a one-way fare including all taxes and one piece of hand luggage is priced at AED300.

Karachi houses the country’s largest commercial corporations and is the centre of financial, industry and trade sectors. The opportunity for less complicated, less stressful and less expensive business travel is also expected to create a large demand.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, said Karachi would play an important role in expanding flydubai’s reach and will make a significant difference to the Pakistani expatriates working in the UAE.

“There are currently more than 700,000 expatriates from Pakistan working in the UAE and an extra opportunity for them to travel back home has to be good news. We are in the business of bringing more people together more often and we can see the Karachi route being a very busy one indeed,” he said.

“Pakistan is already a very close trading partner with the UAE and there is always the potential for even more commercial ties. One of our goals is to use the flydubai routes as a means for people to forge new friendships, visit new places and new cultures, to experience new destinations and to enjoy new relationships, whether for business or pleasure,” Al Ghaith added.

The UAE is also Pakistan's biggest source of foreign remittance through banking channels. The bilateral trade between the two countries was around $6 billion (Dh22.04 billion) in 2009, making the UAE the second largest trade partner of Pakistan.

FZ333 will depart Dubai at 0815hrs and arrive in Karachi at 1125hrs. The return flight, FZ 334, will leave at 1210hrs and arrive back in Dubai at 1320hrs local time.

One way fares to Karachi from Dubai will cost from AED300, and will be available for purchase from the website (www.flydubai.com), call centre (04 301 0800) and travel agents from Wednesday, May 5^th.

flydubai's operational destinations are Beirut-Lebanon, Amman-Jordan, Damascus and Aleppo-Syria, Alexandria-Egypt and Djibouti-Africa, Doha-Qatar, Baku-Azerbaijan, Khartoum-Sudan, Bahrain, Kathmandu-Nepal, Muscat-Oman and Kuwait. The airline will soon start service to Assiut and Luxor-Egypt, Istanbul-Turkey, Kabul-Afghanistan and Latakia-Syria.

The flydubai model is simple, with customers paying only for the services they want to receive. The ticket price includes all taxes and one piece of hand baggage, weighing up to 10kg, per passenger.

Passengers have the option to purchase checked-in baggage in advance at just AED60 for the first piece and AED150 for the second, weighing up to 32kgs, subject to availability. Checked baggage at the airport is also strictly subject to availability and passengers are advised to book online early to secure the space, as only pre-purchased baggage can be guaranteed.

A nominal payment of AED5 allows customers to select their seat and just AED100 secures the extra legroom positions. Bookings can be changed for a small fee, plus any difference in the fare, and food and drink can be purchased on board.

flydubai operates from a modernised and enhanced Terminal 2 on the north side of Dubai International Airport.