UAE aviation growth: Dubai Airshow spurs record passenger milestones and airport investments

Dubai is not just an aviation hub — it’s a launchpad for the future of flight and space exploration. At the heart of this transformation is the Dubai Airshow, a global stage where industry leaders converge to unveil cutting-edge technologies and shape the next era of civil and military aviation.

Industry specialists and aviation analysts say successful 19th edition of Dubai Airshow has raised the bar, setting the tone for even bigger breakthroughs when the event returns in November 2027. The record-breaking five-day aviation showcase signals major fleet expansions for UAE airlines and robust growth for its airports.

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“Passenger traffic is projected to soar to nearly 160 million next year, driven by Dubai International’s historic milestone of 100 million travellers — making it only the second airport in the world, after Atlanta International in the United States, to reach this landmark,” according to the experts.

The UAE’s airports are expected to welcome 155 million passengers this year as the country seeks to attract more international travellers, investments and global events. The country's airports collectively handled 147.8 million travellers in 2024 while scheduled and unscheduled flights rose to 30,737 compared to 27,758 last year, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 10.7 per cent. Abu Dhabi Airports (24.29 million), Dubai International (DXB — 70.1 million), and Sharjah Airport (14.2 million) recorded approximately 108.59 million passengers during the first nine months of 2025.

Airports Expansion

The UAE, which aims to host 40 million visitors by 2031, is implementing a multi-billion dollar airport development and expansion project that will help the airports to handle more than 300 million passengers annually.

In anticipation of continued growth and capitalising on its position as an ideal location for passengers, Dubai has embarked on a significant investment in the expansion of Dubai World Central (DWC). The upgraded and expanded DWC will ultimately provide capacity for up to 260 million passengers, with five runways, although it will be developed in a modular way as growth dictates.

John Strickland, Director of JLS Consulting, said Dubai is able to tap into its geographic position to easily service traffic flows from many parts of the world including areas of strong growth. Additionally,  the emirate benefits from a growing and diverse local population which supports a large point to point market meaning reliance on connecting (or transfer) traffic is much lower than for some of its competitors.

“I would expect further strong growth for Dubai. We saw further orders by both Emirates and flydubai at the airshow which will fuel this. Emirates, in part has to address capacity replacement in the 2030’s as some larger Airbus A380’s begin to retire but equally it can benefit from the additional capacity which will be offered once Dubai World Central comes on stream as Dubai’s new airport and it also sees more global opportunities to open up new markets,” Strickland, an expert in airline strategy, route development, network planning and revenue management, told Khaleej Times.

He said flydubai has evolved from being a low-cost carrier focusing on the Middle East to offering multi-cabin service to an increasing range of destinations in numerous geographies well beyond the region.

“As it takes delivery of wide body Boeing 787’s from 2027 and newly ordered smaller but long range A321’s from 2031 it will further widen the range of destinations which fuel Dubai’s trade and tourism development and will do so in way which is complimentary to Emirates’ development. These airlines together with investment in Dubai’s airport infrastructure underpin the growth which can be foreseen in the coming years,” Strickland elaborated. 

Clear Vision

Andrew Charlton, Managing Director at Geneva-based consultancy Aviation Advocacy, the world economy is very hard to predict at the moment, but it is hard to foresee a huge dip in UAE travel, and growth at this point.  One should always be wary of too much optimism, but at the same time, the UAE should be planning for growth.

To a question about 100 million passenger milestones for DXB in 2026, he said maintaining that growth and yet maintaining a pleasant experience for passengers/visitors is a very tricky balance.  “I think it comes down to infrastructure.  If I can make one comment, traffic in Dubai is an example of growth getting ahead of investment. That is less so the case for the UAE’s airports, which have a very clear vision of what is needed into the future.  Nonetheless, that also needs to be planned and executed well.  There is also an opportunity for rethinking the passenger/visitor experience to keep the growth momentum,” Charlton told Khaleej Times.

Saj Ahmad, Chief Analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, said the UAE aviation sector has a promising outlook for the next five years in the wake of strong GDP growth, rising travel and tourism and booming real estate business.

“Broadly speaking, the UAE recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has been nothing short of extraordinary. The real estate, financial, jobs market and transport sectors have all rapidly got back to previous levels and then exceeded them too,” Ahmad told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of Dubai Airshow.

“Travel is back with a bang across all the seven Emirates and it is not hard to see why this will continue because the UAE has always been a place where people want to come to and want to be seen in. As we close out this decade, the UAE will continue from strength to strength — whether in GDP or aviation terms, the growth story here is far from done — I’d say it’s only just starting again,” he said.

DXB set for 100M milestone

Ahmad, an industry specialist, is confident that Dubai is likely to cross 100 million passenger milestones in 2026 while overall UAE airports are likely to welcome approximately 160 million travellers next year.

“Airports across the UAE are busy again and none more so than Dubai international. While DXB has invested heavily in AI, automated solutions, smart gates and more seamless travel for passengers — the real challenge now is for Al Maktoum International/Dubai World Central (DWC) to be up and running by 2032.”

In an ideal world, he said that first phase of DWC development needs to be completed at the earliest to ensure smooth transaction.

“With all the airplanes ordered by Emirates and flydubai alone, DWC’s development simply has to be firing on all cylinders to ensure that it offers the additional capacity that DXB cannot. DXB is good for around 120 million passengers, but on current trends, the airport is likely to hit that figure before 2030, and hitting that buffer means the inability for airlines to grow. The last thing Dubai wants is for its key hub airport to be choked and inefficient like other rivals, such as Heathrow Airport are,” he said.

Resilience of UAE aviation

To a question about the resilience of the UAE aviation market compared to the US and European competitors, Ahmad said there are a slew of factors at play. By far the biggest of these is the pull of Emirates to connect any two city pairs through its hub here in Dubai. It remains the nucleus and nexus point for all one-stop international travel. “Within an eight-hour flight radius, Dubai and Emirates can reach over 70 per cent of the earth’s population. The US and EU markets simply cannot and do not have that capability due to their locations,” he said.

Secondly, he said Emirates, Etihad, flydubai and Air Arabia all offer far superior products versus their US and EU rivals — not just in terms of premium class offerings, but even their price sensitive economy products far exceed and offer better value for money too. This is why demand for travel to and through the UAE is growing and is why airlines here in the region lead the way in expansion and airplane buys.

Thirdly, he said airports across the UAE have not been held back by red tape like the EU or US — they have invested heavily in new state-of-the-art airports, terminals, sustainability in energy and smart gate and facial recognition technology while the airside operations has seen greater automation for tasks such as baggage handling and cargo too. This has lowered costs, freed up labour and saved time — one commodity that simply cannot be bought.

“While DWC will dominate proceedings, that’s not to say other UAE airports will not invest. Even the current DXB site will continue to do so. From home check in to passport-less check in advances, the UAE airports are not afraid to risk experimenting new technology and we’ve seen the benefits of this in the last decade already with smoother connections to and at the gate when flying,” he said.

Ahmad was of the view that AI and facial recognition will feature big but, “the proliferation and expansion of road and rail transport connecting cities to airports will also be key — we need to look no further than Dubai South where DWC is, to see that this is already a work in progress”.

Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy said the UAE is a resilient aviation market despite the challenges in other international markets.

“Location, attitude to competition and embracing the future technologies are three major reasons behind resilient UAE aviation market,” he said.

Regarding new initiatives at the UAE airports, he said the obvious answer here is the new Dubai World Airport in Dubai.

“An entirely new, huge, airport is a blank canvass onto which new thinking can be applied. That means working on the entire experience for passengers, from start to finish. As much re-imagining as possible. The other UAE airports have the space and the time to join in. Airports can be a force for competition, driving airline choice, and that relationship is a fascinating one,” he said.

Successful Dubai Airshow

And on the back of all this pent up demand, this year’s edition of the Dubai Airshow underscores just why this event is now the prime location for aviation deals. The massive near $40 billion Boeing 777X deal from Emirates showcases that to good effect, as well as flydubai’s orders for the Airbus A321neo and Boeing 737 MAX jets, totalling over 300 units alone — you can see that OEMs are keen to do business here and not in places like Paris or Farnborough any more.

“You want a big deal done and for people to sit up and take notice? Then you do it in Dubai. You don’t do big business anywhere else if you want to be seen. Dubai is where it’s at.

And that’s what we’re seeing. And it is not just this 2025 edition. Since moving the airshow site to DWC, the Dubai Airshow has expanded its global appeal and demonstrates just how powerful the venue is and why the region and beyond are so positive about growth,” he said.

Recall about a decade ago, he said many people were criticising all the huge airplane purchases from GCC airlines.

“Where are those critics now? They were wrong then and they are wrong now too — the UAE, and especially Dubai has so much more room to grow and the continued investments by airlines in airplanes, and airports in infrastructure – by 2040, we’ll be talking about the next growth phase that awaits — not just with new airplanes and engines to replace what’s been ordered at this show, but also to signify the global dominance of Arab carriers on international aviation as they lead the way in product innovation and provide ever more value for money for passengers,” Ahmad said.

Muzaffar Rizvi

muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com

Muzaffar Rizvi is an accomplished financial journalist with more than 25 years of experience in the UAE and Pakistan. He has good writing skills, strong grip on production and an excellent news sense.