Located at the crossroads between Asia, Africa, and Europe,
airlines in the Middle East are well positioned to compete
for traffic connecting these regions. About 80 percent of
the world’s population lives within an eight-hour flight of the
Gulf, allowing carriers in the Middle East to aggregate traffic
at their hubs and offer one-stop service between many city
pairs that would not otherwise enjoy such direct itineraries.
Partnerships of various kinds also feed Middle East hubs, and
between organic growth with selective code sharing, equity
stakes in a range of out-of-region carriers, and traditional
alliance membership, no single strategy has emerged as
dominant. Each of these strategies creates opportunities to
coordinate schedules across national boundaries, further
enhancing the appeal of services connecting the Middle East.