UAE, Dubai, May 11 / Trend A.Badalova /
Azerbaijani market has a potential for adding more capacity in the country, the CEO of flydubai, Ghaith Al Ghaith told in interview to Trend in Dubai.
"I believe that Azerbaijani market is more mature, and there is definitely a potential for adding more capacity there," Al Ghaith said at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) exhibition, which was held in Dubai 6-9 May.
Arabian Travel Market is an annual travel and tourism event unlocking business potential within the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals.
"Azerbaijan is extremely important for us. We have always been very much welcomed in Azerbaijan. This is a great country with great people", Al Ghaith said.
He also stressed that the relationships between the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan are very strong and have potential to become even much stronger.
With regard to the future plans in Azerbaijan, Al Ghaith said that the airline may also open new flights to the country's other cities, such as Nakhchivan, Gabala, Gandja.
Al Ghaith also said that flydubai appears as a supporter of visa-free regime for the countries like Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine.
"I encourage our government to make visa process easier. Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine - these are the countries that in the future will probably required no visa," Al Ghaith said.
This year ATM celebrated its 20th anniversary and was attended by over 3,000 exhibitors from 87 countries.
Dubai's innovative low cost airline, flydubai was presented at the exhibition with its new technologies and services, in particular, its In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system with HD films, now from all the six major Hollywood studios.
As the launch customer for the 'Fiber-To-The-Screen®' ('FTTS®') system by Lumexis, flydubai became the first airline in the world to show HD movies simultaneously to every seat back. The feat was achieved thanks to the system's fibre optic technology, which provides a much higher bandwidth and faster data transfer than copper networks. In total, the airline has 198 movies from Hollywood, Bollywood, Russia and the Arabic film world, in addition to 162 TV episodes, 324 audio albums and 36 games, with more titles introduced every month.
Established in March 2008, flydubai is Dubai's first low-cost airline and the fastest growing start-up airline in the world. Since commencing operations in June 2009, the airline has established an operational route network of more than 50 destinations in 32 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Asia and Central & Eastern Europe.
flydubai operates a growing fleet of 28 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, to cater to the increasing demand from both the business and leisure passengers across its route map.
Owned by the Government of Dubai, the low-cost carrier supports the city's commercial and tourism sectors by serving all travelers and providing them with affordable air links to a range of destinations.
More than 40 percent of flydubai's route development in 2012 concentrated on CEE and CIS cementing the airline's commitment to expansion and connectivity. The airline now operates to 16 destinations in the region including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
flydubai's GCC network is also the largest of all Middle Eastern carriers, with 265 flights per week to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
