Over the past 15 years, airlines based in the Gulf monarchies of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have experienced a staggering amount of growth. Dubai's Emirates Airlines, for example, recently became the largest airline outside North America. Qatar Airways and Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways have undergone similar growth spurts. Together, the three Gulf companies have upended the global commercial airline industry.
But the Gulf's newfound success in commercial air travel has less to do with policy and more to do with geography. The region has the good fortune of being positioned at the center of aviation routes connecting Europe, Asia and Africa, just as Mesopotamia has sat at the crossroads of overland travel since antiquity. The Gulf's importance to global aviation became clear as far back as the 1930s, when the British Empire used the Emirate of Sharjah (located in what is now the United Arab Emirates) as a connective hub between Great Britain and its distant possessions in Singapore and Australia. A few decades later, Gulf Air — a company run by Bahrain, Oman, Abu Dhabi and Qatar — became a prominent regional passenger and commercial carrier throughout the Middle East.
Today, a third of the global population lives within a four-hour flight of Dubai; two-thirds live within an eight-hour flight.
Not long after, Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum made the quick decision to fashion the emirate into a transportation hub. It worked. Today, a third of the global population lives within a four-hour flight of the emirate; two-thirds live within an eight-hour flight. Though Doha and Abu Dhabi can make the same claim, no other region in the world rests in such an ideal place. Moreover, Gulf airlines have used their location to better shape their strategies, buying modern wide-body aircraft with large carrying capacities and high fuel efficiencies to give them an edge in servicing markets from five to 10 hours away — including some of the biggest consumer markets in East Asia and Europe. Though wide-body aircraft are less advantageous for flights outside the five- to 10-hour range, Gulf airlines have concentrated their efforts and routinely excel.
This prime location also assists Gulf airlines in weakening criticism from the West. President Donald Trump has promised to put America first and support U.S. jobs — something U.S. airlines have blamed their Gulf rivals for damaging — but pursuing punitive measures against the Emirati and Qatari companies will not be easy. Trump will have to rely on the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to make headway on many of his foreign policy goals, including containing Iran's influence in the Middle East and combating jihadist groups such as the Islamic State. Rather than targeting Gulf airlines directly, then, Trump will probably count on regulatory changes at home to make U.S. airlines more competitive. In the meantime, Gulf airlines will press onward with plans to expand their services around the globe.
