In the dense calendar of airline schedules, a carrier that once knitted its Dubai hub to the Baltic and Alpine edges of Europe has chosen to stitch those threads back together. flydubai has announced that Riga, Salzburg and Vilnius will return to its network in mid-December 2026, each served by Boeing 737 MAX aircraft flying three times a week. The reasons for the withdrawal and the return remain outside the record, leaving only the outline of intent: a decision to reconnect the Gulf with three quiet European cities as the year turns toward winter.
flydubai Plans December 2026 Return to Riga, Salzburg and Vilnius with 737 MAX Service
Three European routes, three weekly flights each, starting 11 December
Mark
Three routes, three flights a week each. Is that a big deal?
Mimi
It's a modest restart rather than a large expansion. Each route gets three weekly rotations on a 737 MAX 8, starting 11 December for Riga and 12 December for Salzburg and Vilnius.
Luke
Worth saying what we don't know. The announcement gives times and aircraft, but not which days they fly.
Mark
What stands out in the schedules themselves?
Mimi
The mix. Salzburg is a morning departure with a quick one-hour turnaround. Riga and Vilnius are evening departures that return to Dubai early the next morning at 0810.
Luke
The seat counts are 256 for Riga and 246 for the other two, but those come from the published schedule data, not from a statement by the airline.
Mark
And the MAX 9 on Vilnius?
Mimi
It's planned for selected dates only. That points to some flexibility if demand calls for it.
Luke
But no dates are given, and no capacity for the MAX 9. I wouldn't read demand into it.
Mark
Why were these routes dropped in the first place?
Luke
The source doesn't say, and neither should we. The only claim here is that they're resuming.
Der Puls
- Three European destinations are being pulled back onto flydubai's Dubai map, with departures set to begin on 11 and 12 December 2026.
- Each route runs three times weekly on Boeing 737 MAX jets, while Vilnius may swap in a larger MAX 9 on dates not yet named.
- Tight turnarounds, such as the one-hour stop planned in Salzburg, show how carefully the schedules must be threaded around aircraft and crew.
- The open questions are whether tickets go on sale on schedule, which days the flights will actually operate, and whether the routes survive the full winter season.
In the dense calendar of airline schedules, a carrier that once knitted its Dubai hub to the Baltic and Alpine edges of Europe has chosen to stitch those threads back together. flydubai has announced that Riga, Salzburg and Vilnius will return to its network in mid-December 2026, each served by Boeing 737 MAX aircraft flying three times a week. The reasons for the withdrawal and the return remain outside the record, leaving only the outline of intent: a decision to reconnect the Gulf with three quiet European cities as the year turns toward winter.
On the evening of 10 November 2026, flydubai announced that three European routes out of its Dubai hub would return in December. The schedules were published in the early hours of 11 November, carrying Riga, Salzburg and Vilnius back into the airline's timetable after an absence whose cause the record does not describe.
Riga comes first. From 11 December, three weekly Boeing 737 MAX 8 flights will leave Dubai in the late afternoon and land in the Latvian capital just before midnight, with the return departing late at night and reaching Dubai early the next morning. The aircraft is listed with 256 seats.
Salzburg and Vilnius follow the next day. The Salzburg rotation is a daytime one, leaving Dubai in the morning and turning around in Austria within an hour before heading home. Vilnius mirrors the evening pattern of Riga, and on selected dates the airline intends to substitute a larger 737 MAX 9. Those dates, and the seat count for that aircraft, are not yet given.
What remains unsettled is as important as what is set. Ticket sales and operating days have not been confirmed, and the reasons behind both the suspension and the restart are absent from the account. What will tell the story now is whether the schedules hold as the winter arrives.
On the evening of 10 November 2026, flydubai announced that it will bring back three European routes from its Dubai hub in December: Riga, Salzburg and Vilnius. The announcement was published at 1915 Pakistan time, which is 0215 GMT on 11 November.
Riga is first. Flights from Dubai begin on 11 December 2026, three times a week, on a Boeing 737 MAX 8. Outbound FZ1441 leaves Dubai at 1645 and lands in Riga at 2220. The return, FZ1442, departs Riga at 2320 and reaches Dubai at 0810 the next morning. The aircraft is listed with 256 seats.
Salzburg and Vilnius follow a day later, both starting on 12 December 2026. Each is also scheduled three times weekly with the 737 MAX 8, and each is listed with 246 seats.
The Salzburg service is a daytime rotation. FZ1449 departs Dubai at 0900 and arrives in Salzburg at 1250. FZ1450 leaves Salzburg at 1350 and is due back in Dubai at 2250, so the aircraft turns around in an hour.
Vilnius is an evening operation, like Riga. FZ1263 departs Dubai at 1720 and lands in Vilnius at 2235. FZ1264 leaves at 2335 and arrives in Dubai at 0810 the following day. Vilnius differs from the other two in one respect: on selected dates the airline plans to use a 737 MAX 9 in place of the MAX 8. The source does not say which dates, and does not give a seat count for the larger aircraft.
The schedules were published by AeroRoutes, which reported the airline's announcement. The source does not say why the routes are returning, what prompted their earlier suspension, or whether tickets are already on sale. It also does not say which days of the week the flights will operate.
What to watch next is whether flydubai confirms on-sale dates and the operating days, and whether all three routes hold through the winter season as scheduled.
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