Flydubai, the Dubai-based low-cost carrier, is set to increase the number of flights to East and North Africa, it emerged at the weekend.

The extra flights will be started later this month with flydubai operating a total of 78 flights a week to 12 points in East and North Africa, according to Arabian Business.

Its service to Africa will be increased from five flights a week to daily to Juba, South Sudan and three flights a week instead of two to Bujumbura, Burundi.

Zanzibar will be supplied with four flights a week in place of two, Arabian Business reported at the weekend. flydubai will also increase its air travel to Alexandria, Egypt from two to three a day from June this year.

“We are delighted to offer more flights to Africa. We were the first UAE carrier to serve Bujumbura, Juba and Zanzibar,” Arabian Business quoted Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, as having said. “We have seen strong demand for travel across our network in Africa, and we look forward to welcoming more passengers on board our flights.”

In keeping with the increasing trade and tourism links between the UAE and East and North Africa, flydubai started six flights to the region last year, doubling its network.

Started from September 2009, Djibouti was flydubai’s first flight destination in Africa. Today, the carrier has 12 points in the market including Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Khartoum, Kigali and Port Sudan.