United Arab Emirates (UAE) low-cost carrier, flydubai, is to further extend its network into the fringes of Europe as it introduces a new twice weekly link between Dubai International Airport and the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, from November 20, 2013, the first direct air link between the two countries.

flydubai began operations to Europe in 2010 and since then, the carrier’s network in the region has grown to 17 destinations. Passenger numbers across this network has risen rapidly with a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in traffic versus last year.

“This new direct route between Chisinau and Dubai continues flydubai’s commitment to connecting underserved markets,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer, flydubai. “We look forward to the tourist and business opportunities that this link offers to both the UAE and Moldova.” Chisinau is Moldova’s most developed and economically prosperous city and has become the country’s key service and industrial centre.

Moldova’s air traffic market has been growing steadily over the past few years as the country has become more integrated with the wider European community after gaining entry to the European Common Aviation Area in June 2012. According to official statistics from Chișinău International Airport, air traffic has almost doubled in the past five years from 688,782 passengers in 2007 to 1,220,496 in 2012.

According to advanced forecasts, Chișinău International Airport expects to handle an estimated 1.4 million passengers in 2014, representing an average annual growth of 7.4 per cent per annum since 2008. Looking further ahead it predicts passenger numbers to rise to almost 2.7 million in 2025, representing an average annual growth of 6.7 per cent per annum for the period from 2014 to 2025 and the arrival of flydubai and fellow low-cost carrier, Wizz Air, in the Moldovan market in the latter months of this year, could play an important role in hitting and even exceeding these numbers.

Alongside this network growth, flydubai will next month launch a two-class offering on a number of its existing routes as it receives the first of its Boeing 737-800s to be configured with a Business Class cabin. The airline says the decision has been driven by feedback from its passengers, across its network of 60 destinations and will see changes to both its ground and onboard offering but will not impact its existing route development strategy.

The new Business Class product from the carrier will include the introduction of a dedicated cabin at the front of its Boeing 737-800s with three rows of more spacious 2x2 seating. This will result in the overall capacity of its 737-800s declining from 189 seats currently to 174 when the new cabin is incorporated, a 14.3 per cent decline in Economy seating and an overall 7.9 decline in aircraft capacity.

flydubai revealed last month that the new premium option will be launched from October 8, 2013 with the inaugural service taking place on the Dubai – Kiev route that day. The carrier received its first aircraft with Business Class seats at the start of August, and since then has been using the jet for testing and training. All new aircraft subsequently delivered will include business and economy classes, while existing aircraft will be retrofitted to include the premium option.

Following its debut on the Kiev flight on October 8, the Business Class offering will be introduced progressively across the flydubai network, including flights to Erbil, Istanbul and Kuwait during October, Baghdad, Bahrain, Beirut, Dammam and Riydah from November and Jeddah from the start of December. By the end of the year the carrier hopes to be offering Business Class service to Bishkek, Bucharest, Donetsk, Dushanbe, Kabul, Kiev, Krasnodar, Juba, Malé, Mineralny Vody, Rostov on Don, Kazan, Kharkiv, Skopje, Ufa and Yekaterinburg too, although no formal start dates have been revealed for these services.

“Our Business Class option, along with the variety of destinations we now fly to, gives our customers yet another reason to choose flydubai,” said Al Ghaith. “We are also tremendously excited to be offering the Business Class experience on routes that have not had this option before with any airline, such as Bishkek, Donetsk and Juba.