UAE commands largest share of ME-Europe seats
dubai — The UAE is the biggest Middle Eastern country market by seats to Europe with 19.6 million seats in 2018, accounting for 36.9 per cent of all Middle EastEurope seats, said a new report.
According to aviation thinktank Capa, compound average growth in seats from the UAE to Europe from 2013 to 2018 has been 8.5 per cent, slower than the overall Middle East market.
The Middle East is Europe’s second biggest intercontinental region by seat capacity after North America, while Europe is the Middle East’s number two region after Asia Pacific.
Dubai-based Emirates commands 31.6 per cent seats while Etihad has 8.7 per cent among airlines by seats between Western Europe and Middle East.
From the GCC region, Saudi Arabia, one of the Middle East’s larger countries by population, controls seven per cent of all seats between the Middle East and Europe, with 3.7 million seats with five-year CAGR at 13.9 per cent.
The think-tank revealed in its report that capacity growth to and from the Middle East has been rapid outside the biggest European countries, led particularly by Emirates and other regional carriers. The global connections offered by Emirates and Etihad significantly boost the UAE’s importance in Europe-Middle East capacity.
The United Kingdom is the largest Western Europe country market by seats to the Middle East, with 8.5 million seats in 2018 which is almost two million seats more than Germany, in second place with 5.6 million, and nearly five million seats more than Italy and France, in third and fourth with 3.6 million each. Spain ranks fifth by seats to the Middle East, with 2.1 million in 2018, according to data from OAG.
Among other Western European countries that have more than one million seats to the Middle East in 2018 are Switzerland (1.8m), Netherlands (1.5m), Greece (1.4m) and Austria (1m).
There are six countries with approximately a quarter to half a million seats to the Middle East: Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Finland.