Dubai-based flydubai has continued its East African expansion as its inaugural flights to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar touched down on Wednesday in Tanzania. The new routes further underline flydubai’s rapid expansion in Africa, which has seen the carrier’s network double to 12 destinations this year.

“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,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer of flydubai.

The flydubai delegation led by Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice President Commercial (GCC, Subcontinent and Africa), was met with inaugural events held at Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar airports on 22 October 2014. Among the senior officials who met the inaugural flights were Janet Z. Mbene (MP), Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, Dr Omary Mjenga, Consul General to the UAE and Samia Hassan Suluhu, Minister of State.

Flydubai entered the market in 2009 with flights to Djibouti, and in 2011 Addis Ababa became flydubai’s second East African destination. In 2014, flydubai added six new routes to the continent with the start of flights to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and three destinations in Tanzania.

“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,” said Sreedharan, who expressed the airline’s excitement about the new destinations.

Tanzania has emerged as a noteworthy trade partner for Dubai recently and ranked among the major non-oil trade partners in Africa last year topping $1.86 billion in total annual trade, according to recent figures from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.