Corridor Deep Dive
US ↔ Middle East
US-to-Middle-East corridors are concentrated by carrier — Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Turkish Airlines and Saudia hold most of the metal, often with one carrier holding more than 50% of reported share on a route. Premium-cabin product quality is the value lever here; consolidator floors track product tier.
Last updated · Reviewed by Editorial Team
This page slices the dataset to the US ↔ Middle East corridor only. Same join logic as the airfare & traffic dashboard — BTS T-100 traffic plus our consolidator fare floors — narrowed to the routes that sit in this corridor by their geographic classification. Use it to read leadership, fleet, and seasonality patterns within the corridor.
At a glance
US ↔ Middle East in numbers
Routes in corridor
19
Distinct city pairs in our BTS sample for this corridor.
Annual passengers
5.14M
Sum across all carriers, both directions, all cabins (BTS does not split by cabin).
Annual flights
21,100
Both-direction scheduled flight count rolled up across the corridor.
Avg flight hours
12.8
Mean stage length across the corridor — a quick read on long-haul vs. shorter-haul mix.
Avg consolidator floor
$2,087
Mean lowest-accessed business-class fare floor across routes in the corridor that intersect our catalog.
Distinct carriers leading
11
Carriers appearing as #1 reporting share on at least one route in the corridor.
Reading the us ↔ middle east corridor
Three framings to keep in mind
Why it sits here
US gateways to DXB, DOH, AUH, IST, JED, RUH. Premium-cabin demand mixes corporate, leisure, and pilgrimage segments.
Booking dynamic
Concentration is typical — top carrier often above 50% share. Floor pricing rewards the lower-density route choices when those exist.
Fleet pattern
A380 retains a meaningful footprint here — Emirates and Qatar still fly the type on dense pairs. 777-300ER is the workhorse alongside A350-900/1000.
Volume ranking
Top routes by annual passenger volume
From the BTS T-100 sample, ranked highest to lowest within this corridor.
| # | Route | Annual passengers | Flights / yr | Top carrier | Share | Carriers | Peak month | Floor (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York → Dubai JFK–DXB | 770,000 | 2,900 | Emirates | 67% | 3 | December | $1,990 |
| 2 | New York → Istanbul JFK–IST | 580,000 | 2,400 | Turkish Airlines | 75% | 3 | July | $1,920 |
| 3 | New York → Tel Aviv JFK–TLV | 520,000 | 2,200 | El Al Israel Airlines | 36% | 5 | July | $2,120 |
| 4 | New York → Doha JFK–DOH | 420,000 | 1,800 | Qatar Airways | 100% | 1 | November | $2,100 |
| 5 | Los Angeles → Dubai LAX–DXB | 410,000 | 1,700 | Emirates | 100% | 1 | December | $2,190 |
| 6 | Chicago → Dubai ORD–DXB | 270,000 | 1,100 | Emirates | 100% | 1 | December | $2,050 |
| 7 | Houston → Dubai IAH–DXB | 180,000 | 700 | Emirates | 100% | 1 | December | $2,080 |
| 8 | Washington DC → Dubai IAD–DXB | 180,000 | 700 | Emirates | 70% | 2 | December | $2,050 |
| 9 | San Francisco → Dubai SFO–DXB | 180,000 | 700 | Emirates | 100% | 1 | December | $2,250 |
| 10 | Boston → Dubai BOS–DXB | 180,000 | 700 | Emirates | 100% | 1 | December | $2,100 |
| 11 | New York → Jeddah JFK–JED | 180,000 | 700 | Saudia | 100% | 1 | June | $2,180 |
| 12 | San Diego → Dubai SAN–DXB | 175,000 | 700 | Emirates | 44% | 3 | July | $1,992 |
Showing the top 12 of 19 routes in the corridor. Full list in the downloadable CSV at /data/airfare-trends.
Carrier leadership
Who leads inside this corridor
Carriers ranked by routes-led within the corridor — a count, not a market-share claim.
| # | Carrier | Routes led (corridor) | Top-3 appearances | Passengers under lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emirates | 9 | 9 | 2.09M |
| 2 | Turkish Airlines | 6 | 6 | 776K |
| 3 | Qatar Airways | 1 | 2 | 420K |
| 4 | El Al Israel Airlines | 1 | 1 | 187K |
| 5 | Saudia | 1 | 1 | 180K |
| 6 | Etihad Airways | 1 | 1 | 170K |
| 7 | United Airlines | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 8 | JetBlue | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Delta Air Lines | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | Etihad | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | Delta | 0 | 5 | 0 |
For the dataset-wide leaderboard across every corridor, see /data/carrier-leaderboard.
Aircraft footprint
What is flying this corridor
Aircraft types ranked by route appearances within the corridor.
| # | Aircraft type | Routes | Carrier mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boeing 777-300ER | 16 | 18 |
| 2 | Boeing 787-9 | 11 | 16 |
| 3 | Boeing 777-200ER | 6 | 13 |
| 4 | Airbus A350-900 | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | Airbus A380 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Airbus A330-900neo | 2 | 3 |
| 7 | Airbus A350-1000 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | Airbus A321LR | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Boeing 767-300ER | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | Boeing 787-10 | 1 | 1 |
For the dataset-wide aircraft deployment table see /data/aircraft-deployment. For cabin-product status across these types, see the retrofit tracker.
Seasonality
Peak and trough months across us ↔ middle east
Number of routes in the corridor reporting each month as their peak (most passengers) or trough (fewest passengers).
| Month | Routes peaking | Routes troughing |
|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 0 |
| February | 0 | 10 |
| March | 0 | 0 |
| April | 0 | 0 |
| May | 0 | 7 |
| June | 1 | 1 |
| July | 8 | 0 |
| August | 0 | 1 |
| September | 0 | 0 |
| October | 0 | 0 |
| November | 1 | 0 |
| December | 9 | 0 |
Methodology
Sources and corridor classification
Source data is the BTS T-100 Segment 2025 release joined to our consolidator route catalog. Each route is classified into a corridor based on origin and destination country, using the same logic that powers the corridor breakdown on the main dashboard. This page filters the dataset to a single corridor and re-runs the leadership and fleet aggregations within that scope.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the US ↔ Middle East corridor in this dataset?
Which routes are included?
How is "leadership within the corridor" calculated?
Why might my favourite route be missing?
Can I download the underlying data?
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