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

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.

Ghaith Al-Ghaith, CEO, flydubai, said: “The UAE has recognized 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.”

The flydubai delegation led by Sudhir Sreedharan, SVP commercial (GCC, Subcontinent and Africa), was met with inaugural events held at Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar airports on Wednesday. Among the senior officials who met the inaugural flights were Janet Z. Mbene, deputy minister for industry and trade, Omary Mjenga, consul general to the UAE, and Samia Hassan Suluhu, minister of state.

“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.”

We are very excited about our new flights to Tanzania, which are going to be very popular for our passengers whether for leisure or business,” commented Sreedharan.

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