Flydubai launched its longest new route between Dubai and Europe in early August.

At 12:34 local time on August 2nd, the inaugural service arrived in Basel from DXB following a 6-hour and 25-minute flight. The airline will offer four weekly frequencies with 166-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

According to our database, Flydubai will be the only to perform flights between Dubai and Basel, a route of almost 5,000 kilometers.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• FZ 1425  Dubai DXB 07:25 · 12:35 BSL Basel
• FZ 1426  Basel BSL 13:35 · 22:05 DXB Dubai

Flydubai operates an important network of destinations in Europe, all of them to/from Dubai. In addition, the carrier has a partnership with Emirates, further expanding its services on the continent.

At publication time, Flydubai flies to Basel, Batumi, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Catania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Istanbul IST, Krakow, Ljubljana, Milan Bergamo, Minsk, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, Pisa, Poznań, Prague, Salzburg, Santorini, Sarajevo, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, Tirana, Tivat, Warsaw Chopin and Zagreb, with respect to cities in Europe.

Air Tanzania incorporated its third Boeing 787

On August 20th at 20:45 local time, Air Tanzania’s new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner landed in Zanzibar. The aircraft, with registration 5H-TCR, arrived from Charleston, new from the factory, after a ferry flight of 14 hours and 57 minutes.

Air Tanzania now reaches 3 Boeing 787s in its fleet. The first one, registered 5H-TCG, had been added in July 2018, while in October 2019 the second one (5H-TCH).

The airline’s Boeing 787-8 are configured for 242 passengers in two seating classes (22 Business and 220 Economy).

Air Tanzania fleet

• Airbus A220-300: 4
• Boeing 737 MAX 9: 2
• Boeing 767-300(F): 1
• Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner: 3
• DHC-8-300: 1
• DHC-8-400: 5

Air Tanzania has one of the most modern fleets in Africa, averaging 5 years old.

Qatar Airways acquires 25% of Airlink

The Qatari flag carrier announced the acquisition of a 25% stake in the South African regional airline Airlink, with the aim of expanding its operations across the African continent.

Airlink has more than 45 destinations in 15 different African countries, served mainly from Johannesburg and Cape Town, the company’s major bases in South Africa.

On the announcement, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, said: “Our investment in Airlink further demonstrates how integral we see Africa being to our business’ future. This partnership not only demonstrates our confidence in Airlink, as a company that is resilient, agile, financially robust and governed on sound principles, but also in Africa as a whole, showing huge potential that I am delighted we are able to help start realising.”

Airlink Chief Executive, Rodger Foster, commented: “Having Qatar Airways as an equity partner is a powerful endorsement of Airlink and echoes our faith in the markets we currently serve and plan to add to our network. This transaction will unlock growth by providing efficiencies of scale, increasing our capacity and expanding our marketing reach. By bolstering Airlink and its business, this investment will strengthen all of the existing airline partnerships Airlink has nurtured over the years.”

In accordance with our database, Qatar Airways and Airlink have these aircraft in their respective fleets.

Airlink

• Embraer 135: 16
• Embraer 140: 11
• Embraer 170: 3
• Embraer 175: 2
• Embraer 190: 28
• Embraer 195: 6

Qatar

• Airbus A320-200: 30
• Airbus A330-200: 3
• Airbus A330-300: 7
• Airbus A350-900: 34
• Airbus A350-1000: 24
• Airbus A380-800: 8
• Boeing 737 MAX 8: 9
• Boeing 777-200(LR): 7
• Boeing 777-300(ER): 57
• Boeing 777(F): 28
• Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner: 30
• Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner: 18

We review other highlights of the Africa and Middle East market during August

• Air Arabia adds frequencies on four routes.

• Air Cairo expands its connections to Europe.

• Akasa Air launched services between Mumbai and Kuwait City.

• Animawings will operate to Dubai World Central.

• BeOnd resumes flights between Male and Riyadh.

• British Airways to boost operations to Cape Town.

• easyJet adds two routes to Africa.

• Emirates postpones again the start of flights with Airbus A350.

• Ethiopian to introduce Boeing 777-300(ER) on two routes.

• flynas will begin flying to Berlin.

• Neos and its charter operations between Europe and Madagascar.

• Qatar Airways to increase its flights to the Americas, Asia and Europe.

• Royal Jordanian schedules services between Amman and Manchester on Boeing 787 aircraft.

• Ryanair expands operations in Morocco.

• Saudia added two new routes from Neom Bay.

• South African Airways increases frequencies to Mauritius.

• Sun d’Or and Tus Airways add routes between Tel Aviv and Europe.

• TAAG boosts its operations within Africa.

Air Arabia

Starting in October, Air Arabia will increase frequencies on several routes from Sharjah. These services will have the following schedule:

• Ufa (UFA): from 3 to 5 weekly · October 2nd
• Al-Qassim (ELQ): from 9 to 11 weekly · October 27th
• Moscow (DME): from 21 to 28 weekly · October 27th
• Phuket (HKT): from 7 to 11 weekly · October 28th

Air Astana

The company will expand its operations in Saudi Arabia, with the new route between Shymkent and Jeddah beginning September 10th. Air Astana will offer two flights a week on Airbus A320-200s.

Tuesday and Friday

• KC 235  Shymkent CIT 09:30 · 13:05 JED Jeddah
• KC 236  Jeddah JED 15:35 · 23:00 CIT Shymkent

Currently, the airline runs one route between Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia (Almatý – Jeddah).

Air Cairo

For winter 2024/25, Air Cairo plans to add new destinations to Europe during October and November. According to its website, these will be the routes:

• Cairo (CAI) – Cologne (CGN): 2 weekly · October 27th · Airbus A320
• Sharm el-Sheikh (SSH) – Istanbul (IST): 2 weekly · October 30th · E190
• Cairo (CAI) – Verona (VRN) – Luxor (LXR): 1 weekly · November 2nd · E190

Akasa Air

Mumbai – Kuwait City, new route for Akasa Air.

The Indian carrier will have a daily flight with Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets configured for 174/188 passengers.

Daily · from August 23rd

• QP 571  Mumbai BOM 19:50 · 22:00 KWI Kuwait City
• QP 572  Kuwait City KWI 23:00 · 05:35+1 BOM Mumbai

Regarding other cities in the Middle East, Akasa Air inaugurated services to Abu Dhabi from Mumbai in mid-July, offering one per day.

Animawings

The company will commence flying between Bucharest and Dubai World Central from December 27th. In accordance with its website, Animawings will have two weekly operations under the following schedule:

Tuesday and Friday

• A2 760  Bucharest OTP 07:00 · 14:00 DWC Dubai
• A2 761  Dubai DWC 14:45 · 18:15 OTP Bucharest

Services will be performed by Airbus A220 and Airbus A320.

Ariana Afghan Airlines

On August 7th at 00:12 local time, Ariana’s inaugural flight arrived in Jeddah from Herāt, Afghanistan. The carrier will provide one frequency a week on this route with 142-seat Boeing 737-400s.

Tuesday

• FG 415  Herāt HEA 20:30 · 23:30 JED Jeddah

Wednesday

• FG 416  Jeddah JED 02:55 · 08:30 HEA Herāt

Ariana Afghan Airlines also offers three weekly operations from Kabul to Jeddah on Boeing 737-400 and Boeing 737-500 aircraft.

BeOnd

After suspending services between Male and Riyadh in July, BeOnd intends to resume operations as of September 2nd. The flights will be performed using its Airbus A321 configured with Business Class seats.

Tuesday and Saturday

• B4 300  Male MLE 19:15 · 22:25 RUH Riyadh
• B4 301  Riyadh RUH 23:30 · 06:45+1 MLE Male

Wednesday/Thursday

• B4 300  Male MLE 19:50 · 23:00 RUH Riyadh (Wed)
• B4 301  Riyadh RUH 00:15 · 07:30 MLE Male (Thu)

British Airways

Effective January 10th, 2025, British will boost its operations between London Heathrow and Cape Town, with the launch of a third daily service by winter 2025.

The airline will offer the new flight with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner planes.

Daily

• BA 045  London LHR 20:40 · 10:20+1 CPT Cape Town
• BA 044  Cape Town CPT 22:00 · 08:05+1 LHR London

Its other two frequencies will be on Boeing 777s.

easyJet

New easyJet routes to Africa from Europe for peak season.

• Milan (MXP) – Giza (SPX): 2 weekly · November 7th
• London (SEN) – Marrakech (RAK): 3 weekly · April 1st, 2025

Emirates

As mentioned in the Europe report, Emirates will again delay the launch of its scheduled Airbus A350-900 services. Edinburgh will be the first destination, which will begin in early December.

Based on the current schedule, the remaining routes will start during January and March 2025:

• Edinburgh (EDI): December 2nd
• Ahmedabad (AMD): January 1st, 2025
• Bologna (BLQ): January 1st, 2025
• Bahrain (BAH): January 1st, 2025
• Kuwait City (KWI): January 1st, 2025
• Mumbai (BOM): January 1st, 2025
• Colombo (CMB): January 2nd, 2025
• Lyon (LYS): March 1st, 2025
• Muscat (MCT): March 1st, 2025

Ethiopian

The airline plans to introduce the Boeing 777-300(ER) on two international routes within Africa. 

At the time of publication, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi will have operations with these aircraft from Addis Ababa, as follows:

Lubumbashi · December 1st

• Until December 29th, mainly daily
• December 30th
• January 7th, 2025
• Jan 8th to Jan 17th, daily except Sunday
• Jan 19th to Jan 25th, daily
• Jan 28th to Feb 4th, daily except Thursday and Sunday
• Feb 7th to Feb 25th, daily except Thursday
• Feb 28th to Mar 15th, daily except Tuesday and Thursday
• effective March 18th, daily

Kinshasa · effective December 6th

• Dec. 6, Dec. 9 and Dec. 10
• Dec 20th to Jan 13th, 2025 (daily ex Tue, Wed, Thu)
• January 18th and January 19th
• February 2nd
• March 17th
• March 27th and March 31st
• effective April 7th, daily

Etihad Airways

On August 1st, 2025, Etihad is scheduled to perform its first flight between Abu Dhabi and Phuket with an Airbus A321neo. These three-class aircraft, configured for 160 passengers, will offer one daily frequency on this route.

Daily

• EY 414  Abu Dhabi AUH 14:30 · 00:15+1 HKT Phuket
• EY 415  Phuket HKT 02:50 · 06:15 AUH Abu Dhabi

The other two frequencies will be carried out with Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner jets.

Eurowings

Operations between Stuttgart and Marsa Alam will commence as of November 2nd. Eurowings, according to its website, will provide services during winter 2024/25.

Saturday

• EW 2972  Stuttgart STR 12:40 · 18:20 RMF Marsa Alam
• EW 2973  Marsa Alam RMF 19:10 · 23:25 STR Stuttgart

flynas

Berlin, flynas’ new route in Europe.

On September 4th at 03:55 local time, the first flight to Berlin will depart Jeddah, flynas’ hub. The carrier will perform three weekly services on Airbus A320s, which are configured for 174 passengers in single class.

Monday, Wednesday and Sunday

• XY 643  Jeddah JED 03:55 · 08:45 BER Berlin
• XY 644  Berlin BER 09:35 · 16:45 JED Jeddah

Prague, Salzburg, Sarajevo and Vienna are flynas’ connections on the European continent.

Himalaya Airlines

Following a year and a half of suspension, Himalaya Airlines resumed services to Kuwait on August 20th. The Nepalese airline will have one flight per week by Airbus A320-200s.

Tuesday

• H9 571  Kathmandu KTM 00:40 · 03:15 KWI Kuwait City
• H9 572  Kuwait City KWI 04:15 · 11:50 KTM Kathmandu

Himalaya Airlines will compete with Jazeera Airways and Kuwait Airlines on this route.

Jazeera Airways

The low cost carrier will resume two connections to India between late October and early November.

Jazeera Airways will operate with Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Thiruvananthapuram · October 28th

Monday/Tuesday

• J9 411  Kuwait City KWI 19:25 · 02:55+1 TRV Thiruvananthapuram (Mon)
• J9 412  Thiruvananthapuram TRV 03:55 · 07:00 KWI Kuwait City (Tue)

Ahmedabad · November 2nd

Saturday

• J9 407  Kuwait City KWI 00:10 · 06:00 AMD Ahmedabad
• J9 408  Ahmedabad AMD 06:45 · 08:35 KWI Kuwait City

Neos

We already mentioned in the European report that Neos started charter services on August 7th between Katowice and Nosy Be, Madagascar. These operations will continue until August 28th, with the Wroclaw – Nosy Be route being flown again from September.

Wednesday/Thursday (during September)

• NO 360  Wroclaw WRO 12:50 · 23:30 NOS Nosy Be (Tue)
• NO 361  Nosy Be NOS 01:30 · 10:20 WRO Wroclaw (Wed)

Neos will launch flights between Prague and Nosy Be in October, replacing those from Wroclaw.

Qatar Airways

The company announced it will increase frequencies on four of its routes to/from Doha. At publication time, London Heathrow, Male, Miami and Tokyo Narita will have new operations for peak season.

• London (LHR): from 49 to 56 weekly · October 27th
• Male (MLE): from 21 to 28 weekly · December 13th
• Miami (MIA): from 10 to 12 weekly · December 16th
• Tokyo Narita (NRT): from 7 to 11 weekly · February 14th, 2025

Royal Jordanian

During 2024/25 winter season, Royal Jordanian is scheduled to offer some flights between Amman and Manchester on the 270-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. 

The airline operates this route using Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircraft.

Monday, Wednesday and Saturday

• RJ 115  Amman AMM 10:30 · 13:30 MAN Manchester
• RJ 116  Manchester MAN 14:40 · 23:00 AMM Amman

Flights with 787

• October 28th and the 30th
• November 11th to December 9th (Monday)
• December 25th
• January 15th, 2025 to February 5th, 2025 (Wednesday)
• February 8th, 2025 to March 19th, 2025 (Wednesday and Saturday)

Ryanair

The low cost carrier will expand its services to Morocco starting October 27th, with new flights between Liverpool and Marrakech. Ryanair will run two weekly frequencies:

Thursday/Sunday

• RK 5633  Liverpool LPL 06:05/15:15 · 10:50/20:00 RAK Marrakech
• RK 5634  Marrakech RAK 11:20/20:35 · 14:05/23:20 LPL Liverpool

Saudia

Saudi Arabian Airlines launched two new destinations from Neom Bay in early August, which will be conducted by Airbus A320-200s.

• Cairo (CAI): 2 weekly · August 1st
• Istanbul (IST): 2 weekly · August 2nd

In addition to Cairo and Istanbul, Saudia has flights to NUM from Dammam, Jeddah, London Heathrow and Riyadh.

Smartwings Poland

Beginning November 2nd, the airline will add a new route between Poland and Egypt, to be served during winter season 2024/25.

Smartwings Poland will fly once a week with the 189-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8.

Saturday

• 3Z 7145  Marsa Alam RMF 08:15 · 12:10 WRO Wroclaw
• 3Z 7144  Wroclaw WRO 13:10 · 19:00 RMF Marsa Alam

The company currently operates two weekly services between Wroclaw WAW and Marsa Alam using the same aircraft.

South African Airways

More flights to Mauritius.

The carrier will increase its operations from/to Johannesburg effective December 1st. South African currently serves daily with Airbus A320-200 planes.

Daily

• SA 190  Johannesburg JNB 09:40 · 15:40 MRU Port Louis
• SA 191  Port Louis MRU 16:30 · 18:55 JNB Johannesburg

Daily (new flight)

• SA 192  Johannesburg JNB 10:45 · 16:45 MRU Port Louis
• SA 193  Port Louis MRU 17:35 · 20:00 JNB Johannesburg

In addition to South African Airways, FlySafair and Air Mauritius offer this route, three and seven times per week respectively.

Sun D’Or

Sun D’Or International Airlines intends to further expand its network of destinations to Europe from Tel Aviv between October and December, with two new routes. The services will be operated using Boeing 737s.

• Piestany (PZY): 1 weekly · October 29th
• Lyon (LYS): 2 weekly · December 22nd

TAAG

Angola’s state-owned airline will increase frequencies on several international connections to/from Luanda, its hub.

These routes, which will have changes in the schedule, are currently flown by Boeing 737-700s.

• Johannesburg (JNB): from 7 to 10 weekly · September 3rd
• Cape Town (CPT): from 7 to 10 weekly · September 4th
• São Tomé (TMS): from 2 to 3 weekly · September 4th
• Lagos (LOS): from 5 to 6 weekly · September 5th

Transavia France

The carrier announced the addition of six routes from its new base in Bordeaux, of which two will be to Africa.

Transavia will operate with Boeing 737-800 aircraft configured for 189 passengers.

• Marrakech (RAK): 4 weekly · December 13th
• Agadir (AGA): 2 weekly · December 14th

Tus Airways

Starting in September, Tus Airways will begin two new connections from Tel Aviv, to be performed on Airbus A320-200s.

• Sofia (SOF): 2 weekly · September 1st
• Vienna (VIE): 2 weekly · September 2nd

The Cypriot airline has 3 A320 in its fleet (5B-DDK, 5B-DDN and 5B-DDO).

We review new aircraft added by airlines in the Africa/Middle East market during August:

• Air Tanzania

• Emirates

• Oman Air

As well as Air Tanzania and Emirates, Oman Air added a new aircraft.

The three-year-old jet landed on August 23rd at 16:23 local time in Muscat from Everett. This Boeing 787 has the registration A4O-SK, and had been at PAE since August 2023.

With this 787, Oman Air reaches 42 aircraft in its fleet

• Airbus A330-200: 4
• Airbus A330-300: 3
• Boeing 737-800: 7
• Boeing 737 MAX 8: 13
• Boeing 737-900ER: 5
• Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner: 2
• Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner: 8

The carrier has two other 787-9s on order, which have the registrations A4O-SJ and A4O-SL.

Regarding the 787 A4O-SK, the first photo of the aircraft with the Oman Air livery on JetPhotos has been uploaded on September 2nd, 2021. As can be seen in our database, the 787 departed Charleston on the same day bound for San Antonio (SKF), where it remained until August 10th last year.

Prior to joining Oman Air, the 787 performed several test flights, which you can see here.

Other reports we have published:

• United States and Canada
• Latin America
• Europe
• Asia and Oceania
• East and West: Edelweiss adds new North American routes
• Family and tourism: Royal Air Maroc launches two new routes

Cover photo: Lloyd Bell – JetPhotos (Dubai, United Arab Emirates).