Flydubai launches daily direct flights to Faisalabad in Pakistan

Dubai carrier flydubai has announced that it will start direct daily services to Faisalabad, which is the third largest city in Pakistan.

The daily service to Faisalabad will begin on July 10 but the airline said that it will step up the number of weekly flights to nine by August 3.

With the launch of Faisalabad service, flydubai’s number of weekly flights to various points of Pakistan has reached 57.

In addition to launching the Faisalabad service, fluydubai will also be increasing frequency on a number of routes and doubling the size of its network in Pakistan.

Beginning July 10, the airline has announced that it will increase the frequency of flights to Karachi up to 28 flights per week. It will add nine more flights to Multan and eight flights to Sialkot from July 13.

“Since the launch of our first flight to Pakistan in 2010 we continue to see growing demand in the region for direct flights to Dubai and onwards,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai.

“Our aviation hub in Dubai serves as a gateway to more than 250 international destinations available through our interline agreements and we will continue to connect previously underserved markets.”

Faisalabad is the 16th destination to join the flydubai network since the start of 2015.

Earlier this year, flydubai also began services to Quetta in Pakistan becoming the first airline to establish a direct air link between Dubai and the city.

The budget carrier, which is also the sister airline of Dubai’s Emirates, has targeted niche markets to grow its business and redirect traffic to its Dubai hub.

In 2014, flydubai posted a 12.3 per cent increase in net profit as it expanded its network, adding 23 new destinations.

The low cost carrier made a net profit of Dhs 250m ($68.1m) last year, with revenue growing 19.1 per cent year on year to reach Dhs 4.4bn.