1

Salam,
If the price is the same then definitely go for Fly-Dubai. After Fly-Dubai, Safi Air is good option and then Kam Air.
Happy travels

2

I have flown this route with FlyDubai, Kam and Ariana but not Safi.

FlyDubai is probably the superior airline although Safi are not bad.
Kam are OK but nothing special and Ariana is a bit rough around the edges.
I have never had an issue with an Ariana flight but they have a bad reputation. Their international flights are more reliable than the domestic ones.

You should make a note which terminal in Dubai they fly from. Most international flights come in to terminal 1 and FlyDubai fly from Terminal 2. There is a taxi ride between the two so this may swing the choice.

Have fun in Afghanistan.
JJ

3

thank you everyone for the info and input! and thanks jj, definitely excited.

4

Kam Air is realiable: nothing special but it gets the job done and most of the times it is on time as well.

5

To echo what JakJones said:


I have flown on Ariana and Safi between SXB and KBL, and on Flydubai on other routes.


I found Safi very good, can't see how flydubai as a low cost airline can be any better, service-wise. They may more reliable, though I've never heard of any issues with Safi in that respect.

Safi was very easy to book through any travel agent, Ariana was a bit clumsy, offering no sales channel other than their city office.


Couldn't have said it better. When I flew with them, they had a shortage of planes due to the haj season, so they sent a rotten Turkish plane on DXB-KBL in the morning and cancelled KBL-DXB in the evening. I was on Safi, but I understand the passengers were left there, stranded and on their own. There were even free seats on our plane, so apparently Ariana had not accomodated their pax on Safi.

I have never had an issue with an Ariana flight but they have a bad reputation. Their international flights are more reliable than the domestic ones.


Safi (and Kam) are in T1, which is definitely an advantage over Ariana and flydubai in the low-cost-and-other-shady-undesirable-airlines-terminal ;-) T2. There is, however, a free airside transfer bus between terminals, so T2 is a bit inconvenient but not really bad.

6

I think Kam Air doesn't do flights from Dubai - until the end of March.

7

I took a recent round-trip flight from DXB to Kabul on flydubai. A few words of caution about flydubai:

1) They have a rather quirky/unclear/misleading online booking setup. For instance, on the kayak site, they'll say that you'll get one price; when you get to the flydubai site, you'll find out that the price is higher. There are some other restrictions, especially involving using another person's credit card to book a flight, which you find out about after you've already booked. No big deal, but be aware. I'd read their FAQ section before booking.

2) My flight to Kabul was scheduled for 3 AM, if I remember correctly. There were only about 10 or 15 of us there at the airport. At the last minute, the flight was canceled due to "bad weather." An Ariana flight had just taken off to Kabul. The current weather conditions in Kabul were clear, according to the internet. When I arrived in Kabul later in the day, the sky was crystal clear; no snow on the ground. It was fairly obvious to all concerned that flydubai had canceled the flight due to lack of passengers. There was no email notice sent to passengers.

On the good side, rebooking for the next flight was extremely easy; flydubai has an office about 50 yards away from the gate. The staff there was very helpful and let me use their computer to send an email. I caught the next flight, scheduled for a few hours later. The flight was fine, no problems at all.

I will absolutely be using flydubai again, just be aware of the minor glitches that you may encounter.