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Aviation

Aviation news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

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Passengers queue to check in at Antalya airport, Turkey's second busiest

Turkey secures more funds for Antalya airport expansion

An additional $463 million financing has been secured to help upgrade and expand Turkey’s second busiest airport, Antalya.  Antalya served more than 35 million passengers in 2023 which went some way towards Turkey recording record tourism receipts. The first phase of development will include the expansion of Terminal 2 and the construction of new general […]

Oman Air revenue people boarding aircraft

Revenue up at Oman Air but pressure still on, say experts

Oman Air has posted increased revenues for the past year but the sultanate’s flag carrier still faces difficult times ahead, aviation industry experts say. The heavily indebted airline launched a restructuring process last August in an attempt to balance the books within the next four years.  Oman Air’s net losses in 2023 fell by 36 […]

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea International Airport will be the gateway to an area with 50 resorts

Red Sea airport prepares for first international visitors

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Airport will record its first international visitors this month when a flight from Dubai arrives on April 18. Red Sea Global, the developer behind regenerative tourism destinations The Red Sea and Amaala, said the flight, operated by Flydubai, marks the start of a new twice-weekly route.  Regular domestic flights operated […]

The PAL-V Liberty flying car has a flight range of 500 km and a maximum airspeed of 180 km per hour

Dubai company to launch flying cars in Mena

Aviation company Aviterra has signed a deal with Dutch company PAL-V to launch flying cars across the Middle East and Africa. Based in Dubai, Aviterra will buy 100 Liberty flying cars from PAL-V and invest in the flying car maker with the intention of making door-to-door mobility a reality in the region. “The PAL-V Liberty is the […]

Pakistan aims to raise foreign exchange by selling PIA and outsourcing three airports to avoid a balance of payment crisis

UAE and Qatar in race for Pakistan’s privatisation deals  

Investors from the UAE, Qatar and Turkey have shown interest in Pakistan’s national airline and airports as the South Asian nation accelerates its privatisation programme. Other investors are from Germany, France, Netherlands, Malaysia and local groups, ARY News, a Pakistani news channel, reported.  Defence and aviation minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has discussed outsourcing airports and […]

Akasa Air has applied for permission to operate flights to Doha, Qatar, Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait

India’s Akasa Air to fly to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Akasa Air, India’s newest low-cost airline, plans to start flights to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by the end of October. “We have traffic rights for Kuwait, Riyadh and Jeddah, all of which we hope to launch by the end of the IATA summer season,” founder and CEO Vinay Dube told the state-run Press Trust of […]

Terminal, Architecture, Building

Turkish operator to invest in Saudi airport expansion

Turkish airport operator TAV Airports will invest $71.5 million as part of the $275 million expansion plan for Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport, better known as Madinah Airport, in Saudi Arabia, according to a media report. The new investment will increase Madinah Airport’s passenger handling capacity to 18 million annually from the existing eight million […]

DAE's credit facility was increased to more than twice the proposed initial target following significant investor demand

Dubai Aerospace secures $420m from Chinese lenders

Aircraft lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has signed a $420 million five-year unsecured term loan with Chinese entities to support its business expansion. The DIFC branch of China Construction Bank and China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation offered the loan facility. “This term loan will serve to further strengthen our already exceptional liquidity, which stood at […]

Saudia operates flights to more than 100 destinations across four continents through its fleet of 142 aircraft

Saudi sovereign fund in talks to buy national airline

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is in discussions to acquire the kingdom’s national airline, reports released on Monday indicate. The $940 billion sovereign fund is looking to add Saudia, formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, to its portfolio and a deal could be completed as soon as next year, according to a report by Bloomberg, […]

flying cars aqir taxi commute Dubai Abu Dhabi

Air taxi makers promise Dubai-Abu Dhabi commute in 30 minutes

Flying cars could cut the commute between Dubai and Abu Dhabi to 30 minutes next year after a deal between Archer Aviation of the US and the UAE’s Falcon Aviation. Under the agreement, the two will develop air taxi vertiports at the Falcon heliport at Atlantis the Palm in Dubai and the Marina Mall heliport […]

European tourists were second only to Omani natives in terms of hotel guests in January

Hotels and airports profit from Oman’s rise in visitors

Revenues for hotel operators in Oman rose by 17 percent to OR25 million ($64 million) in January as passenger numbers through the sultanate’s airports increased by more than one-fifth. Oman welcomed more than 1.4 million people through its main airports in Muscat, Salalah, Sohar and Duqm, according to data from the National Centre for Statistics […]

Lauren James of Chelsea FC celebrates a goal against Manchester City in the FA Women's League Cup semi-final. Oman Air is absent from the list of sponsors on the club's website

Oman Air and Chelsea FC ‘terminate sponsorship deal’

A sponsorship deal between Oman Air and English Premier League club Chelsea FC has reportedly been terminated less than a year after it was signed. The three-year agreement was believed to be worth about £2 million ($2.5 million) a year and was announced last July. The partnership, which made the flag carrier the club’s global […]

Ownership of Etihad Airways was transferred to UAE sovereign wealth fund ADQ in 2022 to boost Abu Dhabi’s status as a transport hub

ADQ taps banks for Etihad Airways’ potential listing

ADQ, the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, has tapped advisers, including Citigroup, HSBC Holdings and First Abu Dhabi Bank, for a potential initial public offering of Etihad Airways. Rothschild & Co. will act as an independent financial adviser, Bloomberg reported, citing informed sources. The fund may add more banks later, they said. In 2022, Abu Dhabi’s […]

Etihad crew catered to 14 million passengers in 2023, resulting in a 31 percent rise in passenger revenue to AED16.6 billion women cabin crew Etihad airline smiling

Etihad posts soaring net profit and anticipates IPO 

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways grew its net profit more than fivefold to AED525 million ($143 million) in 2023, helped by a 40 percent increase in passengers and AED20.3 billion ($5.5 billion) of revenues. The emirate’s state-owned airline gave staff a heads-up about its 2023 financial performance in an internal memo sent on January 25, AGBI […]

Qatar Airways says the entire fleet of Airbus A350 jetliners is now back in service

Qatar Airways’ A350 fleet returns to the skies

State-backed Qatar Airways has put its entire fleet of A350 jetliners back into service, a year after settling a dispute with European planemaker Airbus over flaking paint, a media report said. The A350 fleet is now completely repaired and back in air, chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori told Reuters. “You know we had this little […]

A Qatar Airways flight attendant on board an A350 at the Dubai Airshow. The airline has a further 184 of the model due

Middle East aviation fleet to double in next decade

The number of aeroplanes operated by commercial airlines across the Middle East will grow by more than half to 2,200 over the next 10 years, according to a report from Oliver Wyman, the consultants. The size of the Middle East aviation fleet is projected to increase at an annual rate of 4.2 percent from 2024 […]

ADIA started acquiring Spicejet shares from the open market in late February

ADIA builds up stake in Indian carrier SpiceJet

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the UAE’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has acquired shares in India’s budget carrier SpiceJet, according to Indian media reports. “ADIA has acquired shares of the airline from the open market,” a SpiceJet spokesperson told moneycontrol.com, an Indian financial website. No details were given on the percentage of the stake acquired […]

Aviation IT Shop, Shopping Mall, Person Dubai Airports already uses biometric technology and is preparing to launch a Smart Corridor to speed up boarding procedures airport aviation IT airports airlines investment

Aviation spends billions on IT to improve experience

The aviation sector invested billions into IT in 2023, as companies sought to improve passenger experience, according to a new industry report. Global airports increased their IT spending by 23 percent year on year to almost $11 billion last year, while airlines upped spending by 15 percent to $34 billion, according to the 2023 Air […]

THC's H145s will be used in various roles in Saudi Arabia including emergency medical services and corporate transport

PIF subsidiary to buy 120 Airbus helicopters

The Helicopter Company (THC), a wholly-owned unit of the Public Investment Fund, has signed a framework agreement with European aviation giant Airbus to buy up to 120 helicopters. The helicopters of various types will be delivered over the next five to seven years. Part of the deal includes a firm order for eight H125s and […]