Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates’ top airlines are greatly expanding their networks in 2026, introducing new destinations, raising flight frequencies and building stronger global partnerships to connect travellers with hundreds of cities across the world.
The recent growth by Emirates, Etihad Airways, flydubai and Air Arabia shows the UAE’s position as one of the top aviation centres in the world while responding to increasing demand from locals, visitors and travellers passing through.
Emirates, which goes to about 140 places across six continents, will start a Dubai-Helsinki flight on October 1, making it the only non-stop connection between the UAE and Finland all year. The airline has also added a daily trip to Copenhagen and more daily flights to Phuket and Cape Town.
Etihad Airways keeps growing from Abu Dhabi with routes to Krakow, Palma de Mallorca, Damascus and Zanzibar while bringing back seasonal flights to Mykonos, Malaga, Santorini, Nice and El Alamein. The airline also plans to start flights to six destinations—Accra, Asmara, Harare, Kinshasa, Lagos and Brazzaville and has boosted summer capacity by 10 per cent compared to last year.
Flydubai has focused on places that are not well-served, adding Benghazi and Bangkok to its network and increasing Bangkok services to twice daily just after the start. The airline has also brought back flights to Aleppo. Will start daily trips to Pokhara, Nepal later this year. The airline now flies to more than 120 destinations in 58 countries.
At the time, Air Arabia has grown its presence in Europe and the region with twice-daily flights to London Gatwick, new services to Rome Fiumicino and has brought back flights to Aleppo. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi has also added Aleppo and Amman Civil Airport while increasing flights to Damascus.
In addition to routes, UAE airlines are working to improve international connections through codeshare and interline agreements. By the end of March 2026, Emirates had 32 codeshare and 117 interline partners, allowing access to more than 1,700 destinations around the world. Its partnership with flydubai makes it easy to travel to over 240 destinations in more than 100 countries.
Etihad’s partnership network has grown to 46 codeshare airlines and more than 130 interline partners, offering access to over 350 destinations globally, including new agreements with Uzbekistan Airways and Air Peace. With locals coming from more than 200 nationalities and more people travelling, UAE airlines keep making the country one of the most connected aviation and transit centres in the world.
