flydubai is officially set to start its first direct service from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), marking one of the longest new nonstop flights available from Vilnius.
The inaugural flight between Vilnius (VNO) and Dubai (DXB) will take off on December 11, 2025. The service will be operated three times per week year-round, using Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for the six-hour trip. On December 12, 2025, the same route will be launched from Riga (RIX).
To mark the inaugural flight, AeroTime attended a special launch event in Vilnius, where flydubai executives and Lithuanian Airports (LTOU) officials opened the airline’s new direct service to Dubai.
“Dubai will be a priority on this flight, but our aim is to make Lithuania and Baltics in general a popular destination. Unfortunately, this part of the world is not that well known, simply because there were not many operations,” Jeyhun Efendi, Divisional Senior Vice President Commercial Operations at flydubai, said during the event.
flydubai’s entry into the Lithuanian markets will see the airline become the first to offer a Business Class cabin with lie-flat seats, providing a premium travel option for local travelers.
“This is not only the new destination on our route map, but at the same time it’s a completely new product that our customers haven’t experienced before,” said Lithuanian Airports CEO Simonas Bartkus.
What made the 2025 launch possible?
While originally slated for launch in late 2024, flydubai’s Vilnius route was postponed, with the first flight rescheduled for launch in December 2025. Efendi explained that this was mainly due to “delivery delays by aircraft manufacturers”.
“Last year we saw massive delays in deliveries. It was a hit on our name, because it’s not nice to cancel routes just before you start, but we were forced to do this. This year, things look much better,” Efendi said.
The carrier cited several reasons for the successful launch in 2025, such as higher market demand, growing passenger interest in direct flights from Vilnius to Dubai, and a significantly improved product offering.
“We’ve changed drastically over the years,” Efendi said. “The whole product has shifted and that allows us to better serve customers on long sectors. The 737 MAX is better than the 737-800s, which we had before. The beauty of Dubai is that anywhere in the world you can put a flight and there will be demand.”
Riga as a backup amid Vilnius airspace disruptions
The launch takes place at a time when Lithuanian airspace has been facing ongoing disruptions, with Vilnius Airport experiencing at least 15 closures due to illegal contraband balloons from neighboring Belarus in recent months.
However, flydubai expressed confidence in its ability to support new route commitments, highlighting a plan to handle such disruptions by using nearby airports like Riga.
“We come from a very volatile region ourselves and are constantly dealing with crises like this,” Efendi said. “The biggest plus is that we have a nearby airport like Riga, so we’ll be able to maneuver these things. It’s not like Vilnius airport is completely isolated from the rest of the area [in the Baltics].”
Commenting on the situation, Bartkus said Vilnius Airport is “learning how to deal with the situation every day”.
“We are working together with our operations team and the airlines’ operations teams on how to adapt to potential disruptions,” Bartkus continued. “Even if we take the worst statistics out of the last two months, it’s only up to 5% of passengers who were affected, meaning that 95% of the passengers are going without any disruption.”
