Arabian Air Cargo Ambitions Remain Undimmed

Fueled by growing a freighter fleet, Middle East carriers have clear plans to develop their cargo business, even if disruption in the regions means this is temporarily on pause.

As the new year began there was little reason to believe the outlook for air cargo in the Middle East was anything other than bright.

The air cargo sector as a whole had over the previous year once again demonstrated its resilience, as the market adapted to shifting demand thrown up by the Trump Administration’s diplomacy by tariff strategy.

Rather than stifle air cargo, the market strengthened as businesses “front-loaded” to stock-up on inventory before the tariffs—or the threat of them—took hold, while alternate trade lanes developed to counter the hardest hit markets. IATA figures show that while air cargo between Asia-Pacific and North America—the biggest trade lane in the world—fell fractionally last year, this was more than offset by growth in other markets from Asia-Pacific—notably to Europe which grew more than 10%.

This helped drive both better economic growth during the year than originally thought, as well the stronger air cargo traffic. Overall, air cargo volumes grew 3.4% in 2025, and while international trade was projected to slow this year, IATA began the year by predicting air cargo growth of 2.6%.

Middle East carriers, which account for around 13% of the global air cargo market, were keen to take their share of this. 2025 had been a flat year for air cargo growth in the region. While that in part reflected the impact of geopolitical events in the first half, it was also the result of a strong comparative performance the previous year.

Conflict impacts

But air cargo prospects in the Gulf, just as with the wider Middle East aviation sector, have been hit by the crisis in the region.

The impact on the sector quickly became clear; industry analysts Xeneta, noting airspace closures and flight cancellations, withdrew 12% of global air cargo capacity from the market immediately.

As a result, since the end of February the air cargo story in the Gulf has been less one of continued expansion and more a case of slowly trying to rebuild.

Qatar Airways Cargo, for example, was forced to suspend its Doha-based services on Feb. 28 following the closure of Qatari airspace. Since March 21, it has been able to operate freighter services out of Doha after the country’s civil aviation regulator authorized a number of limited operating corridors. That included services to six Indian destinations, five others across Asia, two in Europe and two transatlantic operations. That has since gradually been restored to over more than 50 destinations.

The carrier operated a network of more than 60 freighter destinations—served with a fleet of 30 Boeing 777 freighters—and more than 170 belly-hold destinations the Qatari carrier had built up before the crisis.

Another impacted carrier, Saudia Cargo, meanwhile, linked up with the Saudi Ports Authority and the Kingdom’s Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority to activate new sea-air freight corridors aimed at accelerating the flow of cargo from ports and airports on to their final destinations.

“We continue our role in enabling seamless cargo connectivity within the Kingdom and beyond,” the airline says.

Long-term ambitions

Given the speed and scale with which the big Gulf carriers returned and set the pace after the Covid pandemic, few would doubt the determination of these carriers to restore business as usual when the geopolitical situation allows. Especially, given the emphasis the big Gulf players have placed on developing their respective air cargo businesses.

Emirates SkyCargo, for example, operates 11 Boeing 777 freighters and wet-leases five Boeing 747 freighters. Emirates SkyCargo Divisional Senior Vice-President, Badr Abbas had, before the crisis, described 2026 as a “pivotal year” for the carrier’s fleet expansion. SkyCargo was expecting to take delivery of 10 Boeing 777Fs, including the first converted 777-300s under a 10-aircraft passenger conversion program with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI).

The Dubai carrier, which has also begun restoring its network after UAE airspace partially reopened in March, added eight new freighter destinations last year to take its total up to 42 across six continents.

Fellow UAE carrier Etihad Airways underlined its long-term ambitions in air cargo by signing for three more Airbus A350Fs at November’s Dubai Air show, taking its commitments to the new Airbus freighter to 10. That came as the carrier last year took its freighter fleet to six and increased cargo revenues 8% on volumes up 9% versus 2024.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the large freighter order books among the big Gulf carriers—Qatar Airways has ordered up to 50 Boeing 777-8Fs—Airbus and Boeing both see long-term strong demand for freighters in the region.

Airbus in its most recent cargo market outlook projected demand for around 100 freighter deliveries and conversions to the Middle East over the next 20 years. More than half would be large aircraft.

Boeing expects the Middle East freighter fleet to nearly triple over the next 20 years, driven by an expected 2.5 times growth in the large widebody fleet.

Riyadh launch

That ambition is further underlined by the arrival of another major player in the region. In January, Saudi startup Riyadh Air launched its dedicated freight unit, Riyadh Cargo. The operation will use the bellyhold capacity of Riyadh Air’s widebody fleet. The carrier has orders and options on 62 Boeing 787s and 50 Airbus A350-1000s.

“We have seen some significant growth in the last few years, fueled first by the COVID disruption and then there have been several factors that have positively affected cargo and air freight demand,” says Riyadh Air Global Head of Cargo, Pravin Singh in an interview before the outbreak of Iran hostilities.

Notably, these include the development of e-commerce, hi-tech goods, perishables and pharmaceuticals.

The new cargo operation is also in line with Saudi Arabia’s wider diversification and economic ambitions. “There’s an ambition to transform into a global logistics and freight hub aligned with Saudi Vision 2030,” says Singh, a former British Airways and IAG Cargo executive who joined the carrier in September 2024.

“One of the things that is a big positive is our geographical location,” he adds. “We are very well positioned to create a natural gateway between Asia, the sub-continent, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

The airline began flying cargo at the start of November after Riyadh Air started flights between Riyadh-London Heathrow at the end of October ahead of a full commercial launch this year. “What that has done is it has helped us validate our operational readiness,” explains Singh.

Riyadh Air has made much of its digitally-native approach. “We are no different from a cargo standpoint and the big advantage we have is we are going to operate with a clean slate, so we have no legacy systems to slow us down,” says Singh.

“We are creating a digital infrastructure through which we will eventually drive much faster decision-making. That includes speed to market, because that is something that is quite critical in airfreight.

Riyadh Air is still to outline its next passenger destinations, which will drive the initial growth of Riyadh Cargo.

“We will ramp up in line with the carrier’s expansion,” says Singh. “At the moment we are very focused on our bellyhold capacity that will come through the over 120 widebody aircraft that we have ordered. That, in itself, provides us a great opportunity to create an efficient, go-to-market strategy, coupled with flexibility across some significant cargo markets.”

Singh would not be drawn on whether the carrier intends to operate dedicated freighters in future. “Any other choices that we make are going to have to be demand-driven,” he says. “We will continually assess other operating models to ensure that it fits our strategic objectives.”

SolitAir slots in

Among the big Gulf interconnectors, one new UAE player in the market believes it has found a niche.

Dubai-based SolitAir launched in the autumn of 2024 using Boeing 737-800Fs, providing express daily scheduled and charter cargo services linking Dubai World Central Airport with key trade routes.

“One of the things that has been missing for quite some time is the idea of a scheduled daily express cargo airline, where you will be able to cater for everyone without competing with anyone,” says SolitAir CEO Hamdi Osman, also speaking in February, before the recent crisis in the Middle East.

“It is very important to the integrators, to the airlines, to the freight forwarders, to have someone who participates and plays with everyone. To be right in the middle sector for the middle miles.”

The carrier is focusing on routes across the Global South—seeking to work with widebody airline partners on connecting Latin America to Africa and the Middle East—while it serves its core markets. “Our biggest focus is Africa-Middle East-CIS-Indian Subcontinent all the way to China and anything in-between,” says Osman.

While recent events in the Middle East have disrupted operations in the region, the carrier will take heart from a strong start.

“We had in our mission to cover 50 cities within three years,” says Osman. SolitAir passed the 50 destinations mark a year early in the first quarter. “We started with the first three aircraft. Now we have up to seven aircraft. We are aiming to double the number we have right now.”