Economic Impact
A Rapid Success: Inside flydubai’s Quick Tel Aviv Dominance
November 22, 2021
Two years ago, flydubai and all other airlines weren’t serving the market between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. However, through a peace deal that was brokered by the US, diplomatic relations between the two countries have been established, unlocking what is proving to be a key air route.
Since the route has been unlocked, it has been incredible seeing how quickly demand has grown. In December, Emirates will start flying on the route, bringing the average number of flights between the UAE and Israel up to over ten per day next month. Simple Flying caught up with flydubai’s CEO, Ghaith al Ghaith, at the recent Dubai Airshow, where we discussed the route’s impressive growth.
A massive market for flydubai
It is hard to believe how quickly Tel Aviv has risen through the ranks of flydubai’s routes. The airline first flew to Tel Aviv in November 2020, becoming the first airline to operate commercial flights on the route.
According to aviation data experts Cirium, flydubai will operate its highest volume of flights to Tel Aviv so far next month, with 123 rotations planned during December. The airline has a staggering 3,192 rotations planned from Dubai throughout the month, with its CEO Ghaith al Ghaith revealing that the airline is fully recovered.
With 123 rotations, Tel Aviv will be the joint most served airport on the airline’s route network during December, alongside Karachi in Pakistan. Only two other airports have 100 or more rotations planned. These are Kathmandu, Nepal (111 rotations), and Bahrain, Bahrain (109 rotations).
One of the top airline routes from Tel Aviv
Talking about the Tel Aviv ramp up, al Ghaith told Simple Flying,
“For us, especially during the last year, it was definitely one of our major accomplishments as an airline because we were the first to operate scheduled flights… It shows how much there is demand for passengers, now the majority of it is driven by tourists coming from Israel, and this is something we’re very proud of.”
When you look at the numbers, flydubai’s route from Tel Aviv to Dubai is one of the airport’s top in terms of a single carrier route. In the 2021 calendar year, the airline has 837 rotations scheduled from Tel Aviv to Dubai, only beaten by Turkish Airlines, with 1,097 flights to Istanbul.
“The number of flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv was the highest number of flights between Tel Aviv and any other airport in the world. There can be more flights to America, because they’re going to many multiple points, but Dubai – Tel Aviv had the most flights since we started.”
The data backs this up. When you purely look at destinations, however, Dubai was the top route from Tel Aviv during 2021, with 1,414 rotations scheduled by all five carriers on the route, with flydubai making up 60% of these flights. The second destination in terms of flights was New York’s JFK, with 1,181 rotations.