Saudi airlines were the only Gulf carriers with a big shopping list this year at Farnborough, one of the industry’s biggest airshows. Riyadh Air signed a deal for 34 Airbus and Boeing widebody jets, and budget carrier Flynas committed to 25 Airbus aircraft, while the UAE and Qatar, home to the region’s three biggest carriers, made no new orders. (The UAE is expanding all the same: Its aircraft registry passed 1,000 planes for the first time this week, 554 of them flown by its own carriers.)
Foreign airlines remain hesitant about the Gulf, with Air France-KLM repeatedly postponing the resumption of regular flights, for example. But the region’s carriers are spending to defend their hub status: Emirates president Tim Clark told Reuters the airline was flying at 90% capacity and has no plans to defer orders.