Flydubai airline has canceled several flights to Russia

Flydubai airline canceled a part of its flights to Russia. This is stated in the message on the official website of the carrier on March 13. 

The reason for this decision was the ban of the operation of Boeing 737 MAX8, issued by the UAE aviation authorities. The airline promises to contact by phone with those passengers whose flight is canceled to determine further action. If the call is not received, it means that the board was replaced by an older version of Boeing 737-800. Flight status can be checked independently on the carrier’s website. 

As Artur Muradyan, the General Director of Space Travel tour operator, commented, the decision of the UAE authorities will seriously affect the routes’ map of the airline and will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the tourism market: “Even if you replace two or three planes, it’s hard to talk about dozens. The regions will have the hardest time if Max is flying there. In Moscow, a part of the flights of Flydubai can take Emirates.” 

For those tourists who can’t fly, the tour operator will compensate the cost of the lost holiday time. Since flights are canceled according the initiative of the carrier, customers can pay for the flight themselves and then refund losses from the airline in a court. 

Recall, immediately after the crash of Boeing 737 MAX in Ethiopia - the second crash for the last 4 months - some carriers and countries began to temporarily abandon the usage of this aircraft, not waiting for the end of the investigation of the disaster. This was announced, for example, by Ethiopian Airlines and Caiman Airways, as well as by the aviation authorities of China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Great Britain, Singapore, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Morocco. Boeing, in turn, on March 12 announced the development of updated software for "an already safe liner to make it even safer." In Russia, only S7 airline has two aircraft of this model and the company also reported about temporary suspension of their operation.