The Middle East’s legacy airlines have formed partnerships with low-cost carriers – all except one. While Emirates and flydubai is today ‘almost a merger’, Etihad’s Air Arabia Abu Dhabi is a low-cost of its own making. For Qatar, however, venturing into a low-cost carrier is not something attractive for its Doha hub.
The Middle East’s low-cost carriers
The Middle East is dominated by three mega airlines – Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. With the exception of Qatar, these airlines have formed partnerships with low-cost airlines, to bolster their networks and feed passengers to their hubs.
For Emirates, its partnership with flydubai began in July 2017. Back then, the Middle East giant announced an extensive partnership agreement, which opened up a combined network of 216 destinations. At the time, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chief executive of Emirates Group and chairman of flydubai, commented,
“Both airlines have grown independently and successfully over the years, and this new partnership will unlock the immense value that the complementary models of both companies can bring to consumers, each airline, and to Dubai.”
Today, the pair have 181 destinations operating from Dubai, only 31 of which overlap with one another. The cooperation has seen the pair switch out routes between themselves, right-sizing capacity for the market demand. For example, flydubai replaced Emirates to Zagreb, while it pulled out of Bangkok, leaving Emirates to step in.
This ability to complement without competing has worked well for both airlines, and is a model that its neighbor to the south is looking to replicate. Etihad’s partnership with Air Arabia Abu Dhabi takes this concept to the next level, being a joint venture between Etihad and Air Arabia.