flydubai has begun daily non-stop flights to Aleppo International Airport, adding a second Syrian destination alongside its three daily services to Damascus.
The inaugural flight left Terminal 3 at Dubai International on July 20 and was met with a water cannon salute and an official reception from local authorities on arrival, the carrier said on July 21.
The route follows flydubai’s reintroduction of Damascus services in June 2025. Chief commercial officer Hamad Obaidalla said demand between the UAE and Syria had been strong since that launch, and described the Aleppo addition as reflecting long-term confidence in the Syrian market.
Aleppo is Syria’s second-largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities and formerly a trading hub on the Silk Road. Its landmarks include the Aleppo Citadel and the Al-Madina Souq, one of the largest covered markets in the world.
The service operates under flydubai’s codeshare with Emirates, giving passengers single-ticket access across both networks with through-checked baggage. FZ 1191 departs Dubai at 11:00 and arrives in Aleppo at 13:40, with FZ 1192 returning at 14:40 to land in Dubai at 19:20, all times local.
Return business class fares from Dubai start at AED 8,000 and economy lite at AED 1,800. From Aleppo, return business class starts at USD 2,000 and economy lite at USD 470. Aircraft are Boeing 737s with retrofitted cabins offering lie-flat business class seats.
Aleppo follows recent flydubai launches to Bangkok and Benghazi, with Pokhara in Nepal due to start on September 23.
Why it matters for the trade
The immediate market is VFR: Syrian communities across the UAE and wider GCC now have a direct option into the north of the country during peak summer, cutting out indirect routings that previously required a Damascus connection or a third-country transit. The Emirates codeshare is the commercially significant detail, since it puts Aleppo on a single ticket from long-haul origins and makes the route sellable well beyond the Gulf. Fare positioning is notably asymmetric, with the Aleppo-origin economy fare converting to roughly AED 1,725 against AED 1,800 outbound but business priced far higher from the Syrian side, suggesting the carrier expects corporate and reconstruction-related traffic outbound from Aleppo. Leisure programming remains premature given the state of ground infrastructure and insurance conditions, but agents fielding heritage enquiries should note this is the first meaningful direct access to the Citadel and Al-Madina Souq in years.