"Too Far": flydubai CEO Rejects North America Boeing 787 Flights

You will know by now that flydubai plans to operate 30 Boeing 787-9s. Its order was placed two years ago, in late 2023. It will, of course, be the growing carrier’s sole widebody variant. It will transform its network development, both in terms of its own map and also inevitably in partnership with its big brother, Emirates.

You might have expected flydubai’s twin-aisle subfleet to operate in a high-capacity, two-class configuration. Not so. Its aircraft will have a three-class layout, comprising economy, premium economy, and business class, although it is not yet known how many seats will be in each class. This configuration will dictate where they will fly, which apparently will not include North America.

flydubai’s 787s Won’t Fly To North America

Given the renowned range of the Dreamliner, thoughts inevitably turn to whether the equipment would be used from Dubai to the United States or Canada or both. This could be to launch brand-new routes from the UAE (subject to traffic rights), to replace Emirates on lower-yielding services that are nonetheless important on a network basis, or to supplement its big sibling in major markets.

Speaking to Simple Flying during the busy Dubai Airshow 2025, Ghaith al Ghaith, flydubai’s CEO, was quick to rule out any possibility of service to North America. Of course, things can and do change.

“They’re not going to go that far for sure. However, we will definitely go to new places all over the world.”

Everyone knows that North America is very far from Dubai. However, in a curious twist, flydubai had previously hinted at using the type to serve Australia. While Perth is quite a bit closer to Dubai than New York JFK is, most Australian cities would cover more distance. By saying the three-class 787 won’t be deployed to North America, is it also inadvertently hinting that they’ll also not be flown Down Under or, at least, not to eastern states in the vast nation? Time will tell.

Which Existing Cities Might See flydubai’s 787s?

Not surprisingly, al Ghaith stated that, “There are certain places in our existing network where we can also use this aircraft, and which would benefit our profits.” Analysis of potential places depends in part on whether all 30 of the airline’s 787s will have premium economy, or whether that class will only be on some of its frames.

Major existing markets, such as Dhaka, Jeddah, Kathmandu, and Riyadh, might see the carrier’s 787s. However, the capitals of Bangladesh and Nepal, both of which are quite low-yielding from having lower premium demand, might be stronger contenders if flydubai were planning a high-capacity, two-class configuration. However, they’re important cities in the airline’s network. As Cirium Diio data shows, Kathmandu—which Emirates does not serve—had up to six daily flydubai flights this year.

Which Cities Could Join flydubai’s Network?

Glancing at a crystal ball is always fraught with difficulty. Still, the widebody could potentially be used instead of Emirates’ equipment on routes to less premium destinations, such as Clark, Cebu, Durban, London Stansted, and Newcastle.

Places such as Bamako, Bangkok, Cairo, Chengdu, Davao, Douala, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Kinshasa, Malaga, Marseille, Nagoya, Perth, Phuket, Porto, Surabaya, Toulouse, and Zhengzhou could join its network. Although probably too far, given the CEO’s prior comments, places such as Cairns could be intriguing. As always, traffic rights must be considered.

Bangkok, Cairo, Perth, and Phuket are already served by Emirates, but the two carriers already coexist in many markets. Moreover, Chengdu, Nagoya, Porto, and Zhengzhou were previously part of Emirates’ network, with flydubai potentially having a better platform for them to have Dubai flights again. This demonstrates the probable multifaceted role of flydubai’s 787s, which makes it all the more interesting.