flydubai's Extensive Network: 119 Destinations and 7+ Hour Boeing 737 MAX Flights

flydubai is the little sister of Emirates, operating a fleet of Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAXs on flights up to 7 hours 20 minutes. The airline has flights scheduled to 119 destinations in November, of which just 35 (29%) are also operated by Emirates.

With both flydubai and Emirates being owned by the Government of Dubai, they complement each other rather than compete. This is evidenced by both using the Emirates Skywards frequent flyer program and a significant codeshare agreement between the two.

flydubai And Emirates Overlap On 35 Routes

Credit: Cirium

As shown by the map above, around 30% of flydubai’s total route network is also served by Emirates. The overlap mostly centers on routes to India, the Middle East, and a handful of European destinations.

flydubai primarily operates on a different business model from Emirates. While the latter is focused on a luxury experience, only flying widebody aircraft, flydubai offers a hybrid experience. While the Boeing 737s do have a business class cabin, the economy class experience is a low-cost model. This is slowly changing, though, with the airline recently introducing free meals and IFE for all passengers.

Of the 35 overlapping routes, flydubai has more flights on 19. However, flydubai only has more seats on three of those routes, given that Emirates is operating much bigger aircraft. The table below shows the number of flights and the number of seats for November on routes where flydubai has more flights, with the higher of the two bolded in each case:

flydubai’s Wider Network Serves 119 Destinations

While it may not be as well-known as Emirates, flydubai’s network is not one to be underestimated. The airline has flights scheduled to 119 destinations in November, compared to Emirates’ 143 unique destinations. Similarly, while Emirates has 15,210 flights scheduled in November, flydubai has 10,827, according to Cirium data.

As you can see from above, the airline operates flights primarily to Europe, India, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Theoretically, the airline could extend operations slightly further into Europe and Africa, but this would require additional capacity, and the returns may not justify the additions.

Of course, all this will likely change in 2026 when flydubai should take delivery of its first of 30 Boeing 787-9s ( though the airline’s CEO expects aircraft won’t be delivered on time as of May 2024). These have a published range of 7,565 nmi (14,010 km) compared to the 3,500 nmi (6,480 km) range of the 737 MAX 8. Theoretically, the range of the 787-9 would open up the whole world, except for New Zealand and parts of South and Central America, for the airline.

flydubai’s Longest And Shortest Routes

Credit: Dubai Airports

flydubai’s longest route is 2,846 nmi (5,271 km) as the crow flies. This compares to just 130 nmi (241 km) for its shortest route, which is almost 22 times shorter. The longest ex-Dubai flight by duration is the flight to Basel (the 3rd longest route as the crow flies), clocking in a seven hours and 20 minutes. The reason it is longer than the flights to Krabi and Penang is that prevailing winds move from west to east. According to Cirium data, the airline’s five longest routes are:

The airline’s shortest route is from Dubai to Bandar Abbas International Airport in southern Iran. This flight is just 130 nmi from Dubai and has a block time of one hour. According to data from Flightradar24, in reality, the flight time is closer to 30 minutes. flydubai plans to add flights to Kish Island, a 91.5-square-kilometre Iranian resort island in the Persian Gulf. This is 107 nmi (198 km).