Middle East Aviation Market

Which is the biggest airline in the Middle East? Where is the busiest airport in the region? Which countries have the most airline capacity and how is this split between low-cost and mainline carriers? All of these questions and more are answered in our monthly Middle East aviation data analysis and commentary. Data is sourced from OAG's Schedules Analyser; a cutting-edge platform for airline schedule analysis. 

In The middle East this month there are 37,037,335  scheduled airline seats, +9.47% year-on-year 

• Capacity across the Middle East is expected to increase by 9.5% in November 2025 vs last year, to 37m seats.
• International capacity, making up 88.3% of the market, increased by 11.5% compared to November 2024, adding 3.4 million seats for a total of 32.7m.
• Domestic capacity represents 11.7% of the market and contracted by 3.6% vs November 2024.
  

*As of July 2025, international capacity is reported on a two-way basis (previously one-way departing).

How is Capacity Split between Low-Cost and Mainline in the Middle East?

• LCCs account for 27% of capacity in the Middle East this month, growing by 9.8% vs November 2024.
• Mainline carriers account for the remaining 73% of the capacity in the market and grew by 9.4% vs last year to 26.9m seats.
  

*As of July 2025, international capacity is reported on a two-way basis (previously one-way departing).

Which is the Busiest Airport in the Middle East?

• Dubai (DXB) remains the region's largest airport again this month, with the hub handling 5.3m seats. Doha is the next largest airport, with 2.7m seats.
• The airport with the fastest growth rate in the Top 10 is Tel Aviv again this month, up 84.3% which is 431,400 more seats than last November.
• Sharjah and Riyadh also experienced double-digit increases of 18.3% and 11.5% respectively.
  
  
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