Dnata

Dnata Overview

Dnata – or Dubai National Air Travel Agency – provides aircraft ground handling, cargo, travel and flight catering services to more than 400 airlines at over 120 airports in more than 80 countries across the world.

Dnata was founded in Dubai in 1959 to provide support services at Dubai International Airport.

By the mid-1980s, it was employing 2,500 employees in three divisions: Dnata Airport Operations, Dnata Cargo and Dnata Agencies, a Dubai-based travel agency, acting on behalf of carriers including Aeroflot, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Swiss and United Airlines.

Ownership was passed by the government of Dubai to Investment Corporation of Dubai, the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, in 2007.

The company is part of Emirates Group, which also owns the Emirates airline, which was started by Maurice Flanagan, then managing director of Dnata, in 1985.

In 2008, Dnata acquired a 23 percent share in the travel company Hogg Robinson and 49 percent of the global outsource provider Mind Pearl. In 2015 it bought RM Ground Services of Brazil.

Dnata’s international operations in six continents now make up 75 percent of total revenue. In 2023 Dnata secured more than 120 contracts across its airport services and catering and retail divisions.

It recently opened state-of-the-art cargo facilities in Belgium, the UK, Pakistan and Canada. Two further advanced cargo centres are due to open in Iraq and the Netherlands.