Dubai-based flydubai has expanded in East Africa with flights to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
Flydubai entered the market in 2009 with flights to Djibouti and in 2011 Addis Ababa became its second East African destination. In 2014,  the carrier added six new routes in Africa with flights to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and three destinations in Tanzania.
Flydubai started operating its new Boeing 737-800 fleet on its Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar flights from October 16.
Commenting on the start of flights to Tanzania, Ghaith Al Ghaith, ceoof flydubai, said: “The United Arab Emirates has recognised the immense potential in the emerging markets of East Africa, like Tanzania. We continue to work diligently to support the travel, trade and tourism objectives by strengthening the direct links between the UAE and these African markets.”

Sudhir Sreedharan, senior vp commercial: GCC, Subcontinent and Africa, said: “The pace of flydubai’s expansion in East Africa has picked up. Six of the 23 new routes we have launched this year are to Africa. The potential we see for this market is just the tip of the iceberg as it is still a heavily underserved region. We are very excited about our new flights to Tanzania, which are going to be very popular for our passengers whether for leisure or business.”