On 9 October, the first flydubai cargo flight arrived at Almaty International Airport on the Dubai–Almaty–Dubai route. According to the airport, the flight was greeted with a ceremony and a water salute. The cargo flights will operate twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, using Boeing 737-800 freighters.
Since 1 October 2026, flydubai has operated three Boeing 737-800 freighters under a wet-lease agreement with SolitAir. The airline's cargo operations are based at Dubai World Central, with a stated additional payload of up to 23 tonnes per aircraft per flight. Almaty is among the destinations served by these aircraft.
Almaty airport provides the infrastructure and ground handling for the new route. The aircraft was refuelled by KMG-Aero, a subsidiary of KazMunayGas. According to the company, it has worked with flydubai since December 2023: until October 2026 it fuelled the airline's passenger flights, and the partnership now covers cargo as well.
What it means for the market. Since 16 June, Emirates SkyCargo has operated weekly Boeing 777F flights to Almaty on Tuesdays, with a stated capacity of over 100 tonnes a week (according to Kazinform). The Almaty–Dubai lane is now served by two cargo operators with aircraft of different classes: the wide-body 777F and the narrow-body 737-800 with main-deck loading.
Our assessment: shippers in Central Asia gain a new player and additional capacity for exports to Dubai and imports from it. flycentralasia's calculation based on stated figures: two flights a week at 23 tonnes give a theoretical maximum of up to 46 tonnes in each direction per week. This is considerably below Emirates SkyCargo's stated capacity, so flydubai is more likely to occupy a niche of urgent and mid-size consignments than to compete on volume. Competition between two carriers from the same hub may affect rates and schedule flexibility, but open sources contain no rate data. This is flycentralasia's conclusion, not a statement by flydubai or the airport.
Actual load factors, tariffs and cargo mix are not disclosed in open sources. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport named 2 October as the start date in September; the first flight actually arrived on 9 October.