Emirates and flydubai are jointly celebrating five years of their extensive partnership, which began in 2017 by disclosing five highlights on how they have been able to achieve the feat of delivering historic benefits for travelers. In the span of the five years, both airlines have successfully delivered their promise of offering customers unrivalled travel options to every corner of the globe. Most significant is the fact that the carriers’ joint route network has significantly expanded, enabling more than 11 million customers to connect on over 250,000 flights and benefit from seamless travel.
The innovative partnership goes beyond the standard code sharing model and today includes integrated network collaboration, schedule optimization, seamless connectivity at Dubai International airport (DXB) between Terminals 2 and 3, baggage transfers on a single itinerary, as well as reciprocal loyalty benefits under the joint loyalty programme, Emirates Skywards.
In the span of these five years, the Emirates and flydubai’s partnership boasts of five key highlights with benefits to customers as follows:
- A joint network that offers unrivalled choice: This network avails customers access to 215 destinations across 98 countries, with over 250 codeshare flights to choose from on an average day. Emirates customers can book flights to over 80 unique flydubai destinations and flydubai customers can choose from over 99 Emirates destinations. Popular customer favourites, whether travelling for business or leisure include: Kathmandu, Kuwait, the Maldives, Tel Aviv, and Zanzibar.
- Joint loyalty programme maximizing customer rewards: Reportedly more than 8.5 million members have been able to enjoy joint Emirates and flydubai frequent flyer programme benefits, earning 150 billion Skywards Miles in the last five years through the partnership.
- Seamless connectivity at DXB: The partnership offers customers seamless check-in, efficient baggage transfers, passenger access to Emirates’ lounges at Terminal 3 and the flydubai lounge at Terminal 2, reduced connection times as both airlines expand their flight schedules, and convenient connections to 33 flydubai destinations operated from Emirates Terminal 3 in DXB.
- Continued network growth: Every month, new travel opportunities are being created for the 270,000 passengers who connect between both airlines as Emirates and flydubai continue to add more flights to their schedules. This offers customers more flexibility with multiple daily flight departures to destinations like Bahrain, Kuwait, Karachi, the Maldives, key cities in Saudi Arabia and Tel Aviv. Both airlines also continue to expand their networks, with Emirates recently reinstating flights to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. In 2022, flydubai’s network has grown bigger than ever, launching flights to Al Ula, Namangan, Osh, Pisa and Samarkand, to name a few. flydubai has also announced services to Gan in the Maldives, Cagliari and Milan-Bergamo in Italy, Corfu in Greece and Krabi and Pattaya in Thailand from 2023 as well as the resumption of flights to Abha, Ha’il, Hofuf and Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.
- Continued investment in enhancing the customer experience: Emirates has said it will retrofit 120 aircraft with Premium Economy seats starting this month as part of a $2 billion investment which also includes elevated dining options and more sustainable choices. Flydubai, on the other hand, has debuted a new Business Class recliner seat offering customers more comfort on its short and medium haul flights. In addition, flydubai has grown its fleet to 70 Boeing 737 aircraft and will retrofit a number of its existing aircraft, as well as equip its future aircraft, with its new Business Class seats.
The Emirates story started in 1985 when it launched operations with just two aircraft. Today, the Airline flies the world’s biggest fleets of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s, offering its customers the comforts of the latest and most efficient wide-body aircraft in the skies. Emirates has continued to inspire travelers around the world with its growing network of worldwide destinations, industry leading inflight entertainment, regionally inspired cuisine, and world-class service.
