After six months of war in the Middle East, the Gulf’s major aviation hubs are navigating turbulence as a hefty portion of their lucrative transit traffic opts for other airports such as Istanbul, AFP reports.
Between April and June, business for Middle Eastern airlines — measured by passenger kilometres — was down 30 per cent, with that figure down close to 50 percent on routes to Europe, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In Dubai, the number of flight seats scheduled was down 15pc year on year in August, the biggest drop among the world’s top 10 airports, aviation data specialist OAG said, though the UAE hub remained the world’s leading international airport by that measure.
