Flydubai announced flew from Dubai to Basel for the first time this week… Every new flight connection is cool but this one is a bit special… Emirates offers multiple services from Dubai to Switzerland, flying into Geneva and Zurich with Boeing 777 and Airbus A380, but this new service by flydubai is flown with a Boeing 737 MAX…
Yes, you read it well, this is a single-aisle aircraft flying from the UAE to Switzerland. Check the screenshot below, taken from flydubai’s website…
What is a bit unusual is the flight time. 7h10 minutes is a long time in a single-aisle aircraft, with limited options to move around. Their website advertise the seats as “standard”, except in business, where they offer much more comfort. The economy class layout is a usual 3 + 3, and assuming that the front lavatory is reserved for business class passengers, it leaves all of the economy class passengers with two lavatories in the back.
Could you imagine flying for 7 hours and 10 minutes in a standard single aisle airliner seat, like the one much shorter flights?
Flydubai is specialised in stretching the Boeing 737 to its max (pun intended). The flights to Basel is amongst the longest ones towards west and towards East, the company flies, amongst other destinations, to Pattaya, in Thailand. This is a 6h50 flight according to schedule and close to 6h20 real flight time according to FlightRadar24… when everything goes well.
Dubai’s geographical position offers a lot of options and Emirates has been exploiting it very well and so does flydubai, even as a low-cost airline. The TripAdvisor reviews of flydubai are matching with a low-cost, with 3 of 5 for legroom and 3 of 5, where Emiartes has reviews with 4 of 5 for legroom and 4 of 5 for seat comfort. Interestingly enough, the distribution of reviews between the two airlines are different, with a lot of un-happy people with flydubai.
flydubai ratings on TripAdvisor
Emirates ratings on TripAdvisor
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