harri

Daily with 737-8 Max, flat business, with EK codeshare: https://news.flydubai.com/flydubai-a...ts-to-helsinki

ffay005

Harri, are you able to edit the title? If so, could you add DXB to it? I thought FZ is (again) some random Chinese airline that will never start flights to HEL in reality...

Anyway, this had to come sooner or later. And I love it how they, in their press release, mock AY and DY: "We remain committed to opening up previously underserved markets and to providing more travel options to fly to Dubai" and especially "We are confident that the high level of our service and the comfort of our new aircraft with a flat-bed in Business Class will make flights between Dubai and Helsinki a popular choice for passengers.". Having said that, I have no idea what FlyDubai is. Not part of the ME3, but clearly a partner of EK. Could one expect the service levels of EK on their flights? Would it be typical to start service with a FZ narrowbody and then upgrade to EK widebody later if demand arises?

Now would be the time for AY to upgrade this service to a widebody. It would be perfectly doable with no additional planes. Just take one of the early morning arrivals, fly it to DXB and back, and it'll be ready for a midnight departure from HEL. Introduce a "medium haul" concept earning 5000 points per leg (100%), with upgrades costing 25 000 points or two Euro vouchers (or let pax upgrade both ways using a longhaul upgrade). If they aren't doing anything, then surely FZ will win most non-Aurinkomatkat pax.

miikkak

It doesn't make any sense to upgauge DXB. Most flydubai passengers are probably transit passengers travelling to Africa, smaller cities in India or connecting to Emirates. Their DXB pricing isn't very competive.

intuition

According to wikipedia, a stateowned LCC, independent from EK.
I have no experience, but it seems unlikely they would offer EK level of service.

mpkz

Flew several intra-gulf flights with them, and one to Baku.

Only flown in Y so I can only comment on that: The Y product is decent. Never once had anything close to a full flight. The planes are 737s with bad legroom, but then again AY's A320s have bad legroom so it's not much of a difference. You have your own IFE screen with paid tv series and movies, but on every flight I've been on they've made them available for free (reasons: late departure, no reason, and one where we had to return to DXB because of mechanical problem and change planes, they made all IFE and snacks free). They have a buy-on-board service which I've never tried. Flight attendants from eastern europe and southeast asia, some arabic ones (probably Egyptians), captains seemed to be young western guys.

J seats intra-gulf and to Baku were recliners. Have no idea what these lie-flat seats to HEL are like, or what J service is like in general.

One note about FZ is that their reputation for safety is not the best. Overworked crews lead to one fatal accident already.

mpkz

If I had to summarize, I'd say it's probably the same as flying Norwegian, except with a J-class. Oh, and good connections from DXB (note though that DYI connections as opposed to ticketed transfers to EK are a bit more difficult than connecting AY-EK because terminal 2 is away from the main terminals).

ffay005

I don't even know why I'm doing this because I have zero interest in going to Dubai... But I took a look at FZ's website. I wouldn't really call them a LCC. The cheapest Y product seems better than what AY as a legacy carrier has to offer on the DXB route. FZ seats look more comfort able. Meals and snacks are available for purchase on both. FZ has IFE, AY doesn't. FZ will have wifi, so will AY. Bags cost extra on both carriers. On FZ you pay €30 more per direction if you want a Y fare with a bag included.Moreover, both offer night flights ex-HEL, which is completely unnecessary and a pain on such a short route with a minimal time difference. Both sell their cheapest Y fares at the same price (€315 for FZ, €317 for AY) and on both carriers, this price requires some flexibility in planning. (I looked at early Dec.)

The biggest difference is that FZ offers J class. It's priced at €1000 and the seat resembles AY A330 seating. But wait, AY sells J on this route, too! And for €996. Except that you get that same crappy Y seat...

Here's an animated video about the interior of the 737 MAX: https://www.flydubai.com/en/flying-with-us/737-max

OH-LGG

Like in W12/13 DXB was operated on Thursdays by A340.

ffay005

I wonder how much more it costs to operate an A330/A350 as opposed to an A32B. Assuming that AY would place a 46J A330 on this route it would only have 54 seats more than an A32B. Surely they could fill those extra seats, and on this medium haul flight, they could offer Euro-J meal trays in J, plus a cold sandwich before landing.

I suppose they'd need to attract some cargo from DXB. Don't know how easy that would be.

vanaema78

Probably Dubai isn't the most familiar market for AY and it would be rather difficult market for cargo.

ilcannone

Not sure if it's worth mentioning but this could also prove useful for those living in the St Petersburg region of Russia (despite their established connection with Emirates). All too often I see on the Russian versions of SecretFlying deals which depart Riga, Tallinn or Helsinki. I myself often find that flights from the EU to be cheaper than from Russia itself to the point that it's almost worth me taking the train and bus from Moscow to Helsinki via St Petersburg. Presumably, the Estonian/Latvian markets would be another source of passengers too. After all, HEL is closer than WAW and saves the effort of getting Russian visas!

Courmisch

According to me, it's just effectively a narrow-body subsidiary of EK, because EK cannot admit that its wide-body-only strategy does not really work

vanaema78

You can skip the visa when getting the train? No such option in Tallinn or Riga I think.

ilcannone

I meant Helsinki is closer to Latvia and Estonia than Warsaw and removes the need to go to St Petersburg and get a Russian visa.