Flydubai to begin flights to Krakow, Catania in 2018

Low cost carrier flydubai has announced plans to fly to Krakow, Poland, and Catania, Italy, next year.

The airline said it would become the first UAE carrier to fly to the two destinations when it begins services on April 8 and June 13 respectively.

The route to Catania, located on the Italian island of Sicily, is also the carrier’s first in southern Europe.

As part of the arrangement, fellow government-owned sister airline Emirates will codeshare on both the routes.

The two carriers announced a partnership to provide operational efficiencies for their shareholder earlier this year and have confirmed more than 45 codeshare routes since.

Read: Emirates, flydubai announce new codeshare routes

The routes bring flydubai’s network to more than 100 destinations in 47 countries including European cities Belgrade, Bratislava, Bucharest, Prague, Skopje, Sarajevo and Sofia.

Flydubai said its new 737 Max 8 aircraft would operate both of the new routes.

Read: Flydubai receives first Boeing 737 Max jet

As a sign of its expansion plans, the airline ordered 175 Boeing 737 Max jets at the Dubai Airshow last month with purchase options for an additional 50.

Read: Flydubai orders 225 Boeing 737 Max aircraft

“Our latest route launches are testament to that commitment and demonstrate our efforts in offering our passengers more options to explore our network especially as we see more connecting traffic onto our network as a result of our interline and codeshare agreements,” said flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith.