Growth Opportunities for the Aviation Industry in the Middle East

Growth Opportunities for the Aviation Industry in the Middle East

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally disrupted the global aviation industry, with airlines and airports bearing the brunt of the downturn. Limited domestic travel and heavy reliance on international air traffic have had a greater impact on Middle Eastern airlines’ and airports’ business operations than their global counterparts.

Airlines operating in the Middle East are heavily dependent on international traffic flow. This, coupled with the absence of a domestic market in nearly every regional country, means that the region’s airlines are solely dependent on the rate of international traffic recovery. Specifically, the region’s full service global connectors are affected by the uncertainty of when business demand will recover to pre-pandemic levels, in terms of volume and yield. Low-cost airlines in the region, as with their global counterparts, have been faster at adapting to the new market realities, in large part because of their more competitive business models and point-to-point networks.

The region’s airports have also been challenged by border closures and market accessibility. Furthermore, the airports that serve as a hub or as focus cities for regional airlines have seen great decline in passenger volumes. While the Middle East has been successful in both curbing and battling the COVID-19 pandemic, airport recovery is closely tied to regional airline recovery.

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) spending in the Middle East has also seen a significant decline, due to a reduction in demand for maintenance. MRO segment recovery will relate directly to the return of the region’s airlines to previous flight volumes and fleet sizes. This analysis of the Middle Eastern aviation industry covers the passenger volumes of airports and annual revenues for airlines and MROs. The study period is 2018–2026 with forecast spanning 2022–2026.