Aeroflot vs flydubai to Dubai — which airline reroutes instead of cancelling when airspace is closed?

Flydubai flights are currently full, and economy class has only two toilets for the whole cabin — passengers face long queues and squeezing past the service cart in the aisle. Aeroflot is also an option and cheaper than Emirates.

Aeroflot's ability to fly the detour route without refueling depends on flight load and airspace conditions over Vnukovo: the plane can arrive with fuel nearly exhausted and must land immediately, sometimes needing to circle or divert to an alternate airport.

Aeroflot typically flies wide-body long-haul aircraft on the Dubai route even though it's a medium-haul distance — less fuel-efficient, but capable of rerouting around danger zones even if flight time nearly doubles. Flydubai uses genuinely medium-haul, fuel-efficient jets that can't physically extend range without refueling, so if there's a problem they're more likely to cancel the flight than detour.

Check the aircraft type for your specific flight and compare departure times across airlines: sometimes flights are listed under different carriers but are physically the same plane (codeshare-like practice). Flydubai doesn't do this, but it's common with other airlines.

An emergency landing at an intermediate airport (e.g. Samara) costs money and needs to be arranged in advance — it can't be done same-day except in a genuine emergency. Aeroflot instead just carries extra fuel and flies around the conflict zone without an intermediate stop.

In Russia's Krasnodar region, drone threats sometimes mean passengers are boarded onto the plane and then taken back off — the flight gets held right before departure.