Flydubai to launch Basra service from August 8

 No-frills carrier flydubai has announced that it is to launch a four-times a week service to Basra from August 8.

The Iraqi port city is the airline’s fifth destination in the country, following Baghdad, Erbil, Najaf and Sulaimaniyah.

The service will leave Dubai airport’s Terminal 2 at 08:45 local time, arriving at Basra International Airport at 09:40 Iraqi time. The return flight departs Basra at 10:40 and arrives in Dubai at 13:25.

“We identified Iraq as one of our principal markets in 2010 with the launch of services to Erbil and Sulaimaniyah. This is in line with our commitment to continually identify emerging and underserved destinations,” commented flydubai’s CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith.

“We hope that our expanding network will further promote travel between the UAE and Iraq, not only for the business community but also for the thousands of Iraqi expatriates residing in the UAE,” he added.

Al Ghaith told Arabian Business earlier this year that flydubai would add up to five additional routes to its existing network this year. Earlier in 2012, the carrier began its service to the Yemeni capital of Sana’a.

It is also set to launch services to the Bucharest and Skopje, the capital's of Romania and Macedonia respectively, in October this year.

To serve these additional destinations, the carrier in May signed a US$172m financing deal with Pembroke Group in order to fund the purchase of two new Boeing 737-800NG craft.