Middle East airlines are booming. What they do in 2026 will be critical

An Airbus 350 at the Dubai Airshow 2025. Few regions have matched the Middle East’s ability to scale capacity, attract premium traffic and operate with regulatory flexibility. Chris Whiteoak / The NationalShow less

In its latest global outlook, the International Air Transport Association projects that Middle Eastern airlines will be the most profitable in the world next year. The numbers are striking. Net profit margins are expected to reach approximately 9.3 per cent, more than double the global average of 3.9 per cent. Profit per passenger is forecast at $28.60, compared with a global average of $7.90. In absolute terms, airlines in the region are expected to generate roughly $6.8–$6.9 billion in net profit.

These figures have been widely interpreted as confirmation that the Gulf aviation model – hub-centric, long-haul and capital-intensive – has not only survived a turbulent decade but emerged stronger. To a large extent, that interpretation is justified. Few regions have matched the Middle East’s ability to scale capacity, attract premium traffic and operate with regulatory flexibility.

But headline profitability should not be confused with strategic invulnerability. The more important question is not whether Middle Eastern airlines will outperform their peers next year, but whether today’s performance is being converted into long-term resilience – economically, operationally and environmentally.

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A profit per passenger of nearly $30 is exceptional in an industry where single-digit dollars have historically been the norm. Yet this metric reflects a very specific set of conditions: high exposure to long-haul and premium traffic; disciplined capacity growth; relatively young fleets and network structures that extract maximum value from global transfer flows.

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Those same characteristics also create sensitivity. Long-haul networks amplify both upside and downside. Small shifts in premium demand, sustained fuel price increases or prolonged airspace disruptions can quickly erode margins. The recent necessity to extend aircraft life and invest in retrofits – a response to global delivery delays – has helped keep capacity tight, but it also raises future maintenance costs and carbon intensity if not carefully managed.

Profitability today tells us the system is working under current conditions. It does not, on its own, tell us how the system behaves under stress.

The region’s aviation success is inseparable from its infrastructure investments. Multibillion-dollar airport expansions, integrated logistics zones and premium passenger experiences have been central to the Middle East’s positioning as a global crossroads.

But infrastructure scale does not automatically equate to economic return. Airports create value only when connectivity translates into tourism spend, trade flows and business formation. Without tight alignment between aviation policy, visa regimes, destination development and surface transport, additional runway capacity risks becoming an impressive but under-utilised asset.

The next phase of investment discipline should therefore be outcome-driven rather than capacity-driven. The relevant question is no longer how many passengers a hub can process, but how much economic activity each incremental passenger generates.

For Middle Eastern aviation, the challenge now is strategic maturity: converting financial performance into resilience, scale into optionality and connectivity into broad-based economic value

Middle Eastern carriers are often criticised for their reliance on transfer traffic. That criticism frequently misses the point. For most Gulf states, the absence of a large domestic aviation market is not a strategic failure but a structural reality. Small populations, compact geographies and strong surface transport systems mean there is neither the scale nor the economic logic to build domestic air networks comparable to those in North America, China or India.

The hub-and-spoke model is not a choice – it is a necessity. Long-haul transfer traffic enables fleet utilisation, supports premium cabin economics and allows carriers to achieve global scale despite limited local demand. In that sense, the model has worked exactly as intended.

However, its success introduces a different form of risk. The vulnerability lies not in the absence of domestic traffic, but in the concentration of demand into a relatively narrow set of global long-haul flows that are highly sensitive to geopolitics, airspace access, and changes in corporate travel behaviour. When disruption occurs, it propagates rapidly across networks that depend on seamless intercontinental connectivity.

Resilience, therefore, must be built not through domestic flying, but through diversification within international networks. Broader exposure to secondary cities in South Asia, Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe – markets with structural growth and fewer alternatives – matters more than incremental frequency on already saturated trunk routes. Regional integration, including stronger Middle East–Africa and intra-GCC connectivity, can also act as a stabilising force, anchoring demand closer to home while continuing to feed global networks.

The next evolution of the hub model is not about size, but about optionality. Operational excellence in aviation is ultimately a human enterprise. Pilots, engineers, air traffic specialists, cabin crew and digital operations teams underpin reliability and safety. While Middle Eastern carriers have been successful in attracting global talent, competition for skilled labour is intensifying worldwide.

An overreliance on international recruitment introduces exposure to geopolitical shocks and labour market tightening. Building deeper regional training pipelines, certification frameworks and long-term career pathways is therefore a strategic investment, not a social one. Without it, growth ambitions will increasingly collide with operational bottlenecks.

Aviation’s environmental challenge is no longer peripheral. With limited near-term technological alternatives for long-haul flight, progress will depend on pragmatic measures: scaling sustainable aviation fuel production, improving operational efficiency and aligning fleet renewal with credible decarbonisation pathways.

Tourists explore Heritage Village, Abu Dhabi. Airports create value only when connectivity translates into tourism spend, trade flows and business formation. Khushnum Bhandari / The National

The Middle East is uniquely positioned to lead on SAF production through integrated energy and aviation ecosystems. Doing so would require moving beyond aspirational commitments toward industrial-scale execution and reallocating capital accordingly. Sustainability, handled well, can become a competitive advantage rather than a compliance exercise.

The IATA forecasts for 2026 are real, and they are impressive. But they should be treated as an opportunity, not an endpoint. Periods of above-cycle profitability are rare in aviation. When they occur, they must be used to address structural weaknesses, not reinforce complacency.

For Middle Eastern aviation, the challenge now is strategic maturity: converting financial performance into resilience, scale into optionality and connectivity into broad-based economic value. If the region succeeds, it will not merely lead the world in profit per passenger for a single year. It will have built an aviation system capable of thriving through the next decade’s uncertainties – not in spite of its hub model, but because it evolved it in time.