Dubai: UAE’s national carriers will fly to 536 destinations by the end of this year, analysis shows.
The carriers have continued to expand their networks as the world recovers from COVID-19 and travel restrictions globally are eased.
The carriers succeeded in outperforming many of their counterparts regionally and globally in terms of the number of destinations, operational performance and services provided to passengers, benefiting from a broad base of expertise and achievements that turned challenges into opportunities.
Emirates will fly to around 130 destinations, Etihad Airways to 66 and flydubai to 114. Air Arabia has 190 destinations on its network from its five hubs in the UAE, Morocco and Egypt, while Wizz Air Abu Dhabi’s portfolio includes 36 destinations.
In 2022, Etihad added three new destinations namely Crete (Greece), Beijing and Guangzhou in China, while Emirates added five destinations, including Bali, London Stansted, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, flydubai added 20 destinations while Air Arabia added 14.
The carriers are expected to continue their growth and momentum in the next years, leveraging from the strong demand for travel to and from the UAE, which has become the world’s preferred destination for tourism and business, especially after it succeeded in dealing with the pandemic, and the success of Expo 2020 Dubai, as well as preparations to host COP28 in 2023.
Preliminary data shows that the UAE achieved a 67.4 per cent growth in scheduled seat capacity on flights operating at the country’s airports in 2022, reaching 63.89 million scheduled seats, compared to 38.16 million seats in 2021, according to the latest data from OAG International, a provider of airport and airline data.
