Air Canada and flydubai have a new partnership that will give travellers better flying options between Canada, the Middle East, East Africa, Indian Subcontinent and Southern Asia.

Under the deal, which still needs regulatory approval Air Canada's marketing code will be placed on nine routes operated from Dubai by flydubai, giving customers the ability to travel to these markets with the issuance of a single ticket. The routes include the Middle Eastern cities of Medina, Dammam, Bahrain, Jeddah, and Muscat, as well as flights to Colombo, and Karachi on the Indian Subcontinent.

Additionally, through an interline arrangement, customers will be able to seamlessly connect in Dubai to more than 60 destinations that flydubai flies to in the Middle East, East Africa and Southern Asia – including Kathmandu, Djibouti and the Maldives. Of these destinations, more than 30 are unique to flydubai and not flown by other partners of Air Canada.

"Air Canada is very pleased to partner with flydubai, further expanding our connectivity to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, a growing source of immigration and travel to Canada. This new partnership is a perfect complement to Air Canada's non-stop service to Dubai from Toronto and Vancouver, and growing our relationship with Emirates, flydubai's codeshare partner. Together we look forward to bringing together our networks and building a better experience for our customers," said Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President, Revenue and Network Planning at Air Canada.

Commenting on the codeshare announcement, Hamad Obaidalla, Chief Commercial Officer at flydubai, said: "We are very pleased to be adding Air Canada to our list of partners and to offer their passengers a seamless travel experience on the flydubai network. We look forward to growing this partnership that offers passengers the benefits and the convenience of connecting via the Dubai aviation hub and we look forward to welcoming them on board soon."

The airlines also plan on further improving the connection process in Dubai, and are working toward introducing expanded features and benefits for one another's loyalty programme members to be announced later this year.