5 Middle East Travel Innovations Born Out of Pandemic and Fierce Rivalries
Skift Take
From sanitizing robots to unmanned ground vehicles, airlines and public facilities in the Middle East have become fixated on innovation. Despite the push for new, contactless tech, travel across the region still couldn't weather the storm of Covid-19.
Since the coronavirus crisis changed the business of travel as we know it, the world has become obsessed with digital health passports, new technologies, and automation methods. Since then, the race to deploy digital solutions intensified among rival airlines and airports in the Middle East.
The Middle East region is known for connecting tens of millions of international passengers annually, but since January 20 of last year, regional carriers saw their scheduled capacity slump 57 percent, according to the latest data from OAG.
Typically, the region's busiest airports include Dubai International, Doha International Airport, Abu Dhabi International, and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2020, however, airlines in the region lost about 74 percent of their revenues, the sharpest decline globally, according to the Airports Council International. That's a loss of about $8 billion in revenues.
Although airlines trade group International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the region's passenger numbers to grow about 4.3 percent annually, the group says Middle East carriers still have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to improving the social and economic benefits of their avi
