Following Arabian Travel Market 2026, Breaking Travel News speaks directly with airline, airport and destination leaders about the connectivity trends helping keep Middle East tourism moving, from restored air capacity and new routes to visa facilitation, easing travel advisories and a more seamless journey through airports. See more interviews here, and a roundup of the trends at Arabian Travel Market here.
For Hoor Al Khaja, SVP International Operations at Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, the return of air connectivity has been one of the clearest signs of improving traveller confidence.
“We’ve seen flights come back. We’ve seen capacity ramp up not only from our national carriers and we’ve seen advisories ease up,” she told Breaking Travel News, adding that these factors were helping to “reinstill confidence” in the destination.
The airlines themselves are continuing to invest in that recovery. Antonoaldo Neves, Group CEO of Etihad Airways, said the airline had maintained its investment programme despite the disruption earlier in the year.
“We decided to double the bet and we kept all the investment,” Neves said. Etihad had hired more than 600 people year to date, added aircraft and increased capacity by 15% compared with the previous year. The airline was also recording its strongest July for profitability.
That expansion is continuing into new markets. Neves said Etihad expected around 15 additional aircraft to arrive in the second half of 2026, with four new destinations planned in China and another four in Africa in 2027.
Emirates is similarly continuing to add connections while investing in the passenger journey. Boutros Boutros, EVP Corporate Communications, Marketing & Brand at Emirates Group, highlighted the airline’s new Helsinki service alongside redesigned economy and premium-economy products at ATM.
Connectivity is also being shaped by what happens beyond the airport. Tourism Economics’ regional analysis identifies air connectivity as a key foundation for tourism flows and notes that Saudi Arabia has expanded its visa facilitation network through agreements with countries across Europe, Asia and Central Asia. The report also warns that capacity constraints on some key routes could limit demand, underlining how closely aviation capacity and tourism growth are now linked.
At the airport itself, the direction of travel is towards removing friction. Mobile immigration, smarter processing and increasingly seamless passenger journeys are becoming part of the competitive infrastructure around a destination.
Taken together, the conversations at ATM suggest that connectivity is becoming less about simply adding flights and more about keeping the entire journey open: maintaining airlift through disruption, widening access through visas, restoring confidence as advisories ease and making the journey itself increasingly seamless.
