Air Canada and flydubai have announced a partnership that will see the two airlines code-sharing on nine routes out of Dubai, namely Bahrain, Dammam, Jeddah, Medina, Muscat, Colombo and Karachi. 

While flydubai doesn’t fly to Canada [it only operates Boeing 737 narrow-body aircraft – ed. note], Air Canada operates a daily nonstop flight to Dubai (DXB) from Toronto (YYZ) on Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and, starting in October 2023, a four-weekly nonstop service from Vancouver (YVR) using Boeing 787 aircraft. 

In addition to the nine routes covered by the codeshare agreement, the two carriers also interline on 60 other routes out of Dubai.  

Air Canada already has a codeshare partnership in place with the other, larger, Dubai-based carrier, Emirates. Although Emirates and flydubai are separate airlines, they share owners and operate in close alignment. 

The flydubai deal, however, represents a significant enhancement in connectivity options for passengers flying to the Middle East, Africa and Asia on the Canadian carrier as half of these destinations are not serviced by any other Air Canada partner. 

Before its implementation, this deal will need to be approved first by the competition authorities in both countries.