China-based AWOT picks Dubai to anchor Middle East, Africa and Europe expansion

AWOT’s new Dubai base targets MEA and Europe, backing the emirate’s D33 goals

Last updated: December 25, 2025 | 14:03

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

The freezone HQ, inaugurated by DAFZ Senior VP Arif Al Khouri and AWOT MENA GM Chris Yang, with executives David Lee, Kenny Li, Sophia Zeng and Kai Zhang, leverages Dubai's airport proximity to gain supply chain dominance.

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Dubai: Dubai Airport Freezone welcomed AWOT Global Logistics Corporation's new regional headquarters Thursday, cementing the emirate's pull as a logistics powerhouse for one of the world's top 10 air freight companies.

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AWOT, ranked ninth globally by Armstrong & Associates with 780,000 metric tonnes of cargo in 2025, operates 55 self-run sites across China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, plus over 300 agents in 100 countries. The Dubai-based targets expansion in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Strategic gateway

Headquartered in China with 1,500 employees, AWOT operates 1,800 charter flights from Asia to the US, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and back. Partnerships span tech, industry, airlines and shipping for integrated air, sea, land and project logistics.

“The opening of AWOT’s regional headquarters at Dubai Airport Freezone reflects the confidence that major global companies place in Dubai and reaffirms the emirate’s ability to provide an integrated business environment that supports expansion and sustainable growth," said Al Khouri. "This step aligns with our efforts to consolidate Dubai’s position as a global hub for supply chains and logistics services, contributing to the objectives of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which aims to double the size of Dubai’s economy and position it among the world’s top three global cities.”

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MENA expansion via digital backbone

From Dubai, AWOT coordinates freight, cross-border transport, and specialised services, tapping into DAFZ's ecosystem of customs, agents, and distributors. Cloud-based tracking and analytics drive efficiency for advanced models.

“The opening of our regional headquarters at Dubai Airport Freezone represents a pivotal milestone and a clear strategic commitment in AWOT’s regional and global expansion journey," said Yang. "By establishing our presence here, we are positioning ourselves closer to our customers, closer to opportunity, while reinforcing our long-term commitment. Dubai provides an ideal platform to lead and scale our integrated logistics solutions, thanks to its advanced logistics infrastructure, ease of doing business, and its strategic location connecting key global markets.”

DAFZ, under the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority, streamlines regulations and connects AWOT to partners, boosting Dubai's role as a trade gateway from Asia to world markets. The setup supports D33's goal of doubling the economy via smart supply chains.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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