In Part One of our series on the rapid growth of Middle Eastern airlines, we had focused on the new routes launched by Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways.
Since then, Qatar Airways has announced its winter schedule, which includes 10 daily flights from Doha to London Heathrow up from eight, and routes to a further 15 destinations. It also announced that it will operate 24 weekly flights between Manchester and Doha, up from the current 21 weekly flights as well as 17 weekly flights to Dublin from December.
Emirates will add a fourth daily London-Gatwick flight to Dubai from February 2026. Emirates will deploy its Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the route with 32 lie-flat Business Class seats, 28 Premium Economy seats and 238 in Economy Class.
It brings Emirates’ total daily London operations to a dozen flights daily at three airports, including Heathrow and Stansted. Overall, its UK network spans 140 weekly services to eight UK airports, including Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
Air Arabia Abu Dhabi to boost capacity by 40% in 2025
Low-cost carrier Air Arabia Abu Dhabi aims to boost total capacity by 40% in 2025 with the acquisition of new aircraft. It has also announced new routes.
Air Arabia announced the launch of a new route between its base in Sharjah, UAE, and Munich in Germany, set to take off on 15 December. New daily non-stop flights will connect Sharjah with Warsaw starting 20 December, and also with Prague on the same day.
Air Arabia announced the launch of its new non-stop flights to Krabi, in Thailand, starting 28 November. Its existing service between Sharjah and the Maldives will be increased to twice daily starting 27 October.
Continuing to add to its Russian operations, Air Arabia launched a new route between Sharjah and Sochi on 27 June. Making it the airline’s sixth Russian city served directly from Sharjah, following Moscow, Kazan, Samara, Una and Yekaterinburg. Almaty in Kazakhstan and Yerevan in Armenia were added to its destination list.
The carrier has also launched new non-stop flights to Ethiopia, connecting Sharjah with Addis Ababa in January. Air Arabia is ramping up its operations in Pakistan with increased flight frequencies to Multan and Faisalabad, and has commenced its service to Sialkot.
Saudia adds 10 destinations to its network
Saudi Airlines (Saudia) has announced the addition of more than 10 new destinations to its flight network for 2025, including Vienna, Venice, Larnaca, Athens, Heraklion, Nice, Malaga, Bali, Antalya, El Alamein, and Salalah. The expansion comes in response to increased international travel demand, with a 16% growth in passenger transport last year.
Currently operating a fleet of 147 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, Saudia plans to further expand its capacity and route coverage by adding 118 new planes. According to the General Authority of Civil Aviation, flight operations in Saudi Arabia reached approximately 905,000 in 2024, reflecting an 11 percent year-on-year increase.
These operations included 474,000 domestic flights and 431,000 international flights. Air connectivity expanded by 20 percent, linking Saudi Arabia to over 170 destinations worldwide.
New airline Riyadh Air
Riyadh Air is set to be operational by the end of 2025, and it will become the first airline in Saudi Arabia to operate the A350-1000. Riyadh Air is the second flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, after Saudia, based in Riyadh. It will operate domestic and international scheduled flights to over 100 destinations on six continents, but has not announced its route network.
In July, Saudi Arabia announced the launch of a new national low-cost airline, with operations based out of King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, as part of a broader push to transform the Kingdom into a regional aviation hub. The consortium is led by Air Arabia. The airline will begin operations with a fleet of 45 aircraft, covering 24 domestic and 57 international destinations, and aims to serve 10 million passengers annually.
flynas flies to over 20 destinations for summer
Saudi Arabia’s first low-cost airline, flynas, is expanding its summer 2025 destinations to include five new cities: Milan, Geneva, Krakow, Rize in Turkiye and Casablanca. They are also adding a new route between Jeddah and El Alamein in Egypt. These additions bring the total number of flynas’ summer destinations to over 20, which includes Bodrum, Istanbul, Baku, Batumi, Vienna, and Prague.
Flynas’ fleet now consists of 64 aircraft, of which 58 are A320neo in addition to 4 A320ceo and 2 wide-body A330 aircraft.
flyadeal expands summer destination routes
Another Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier, flyadeal, is expanding its summer 2025 destinations with the addition of Salalah, Oman, and the return of seasonal favourites like Trabzon, Baku, Tbilisi, Sharm El Sheikh, and Sarajevo. The airline is also launching four new routes to Pakistan in August, including Riyadh to Islamabad, Peshawar and Sialkot, as well as Damman to Karachi.
Other new domestic services include flights from Dammam to Najran, Tabuk and Yanbu, as well as first flights from Riyadh and Jeddah to Jordan’s capital of Amman. flyadeal is also exploring expansion into the Indian market, including potential routes to new airports near Mumbai and Delhi.
flydubai launches new flights to 4 European destinations
flydubai, whose parent company is Emirates, is launching flights to four new European destinations in 2025: Chișinău (Moldova), Iași (Romania), Riga (Latvia), and Vilnius (Lithuania). These routes will be phased in, with Chișinău and Iași starting in September and Riga and Vilnius following in December.
Flights to several destinations also took off for the summer season, in June (till August) – Santorini & Corfu in Greece, Tivat in Montenegro, Antalya & Trabzon in Turkey, Batumi in Georgia. These routes will fly from June to September – Al Alamein in Egypt, Bodrum in Turkiye, Dubrovnik in Croatia, and Mykonos in Greece.
