Nine out of ten empty-leg listings touching Dubai over the past year started or ended at Al Maktoum International, not Dubai International. According to the SkyAccess Middle East Empty Leg Index, published in October 2026 and reported by Khaleej Times, Dubai's two airports accounted for 2,762 empty-leg listings between 2 October 2025 and 2 October 2026. Al Maktoum (DWC) accounted for 2,509 of them and Dubai International (DXB) for 254.
For a Dubai flyer hunting a discounted private seat, that one ratio matters more than any other figure in the index. The discounted seats are at Dubai South, not at the city's main airport.
What the index counts, and what it does not
SkyAccess is an online marketplace for empty legs, the repositioning flights an operator would otherwise fly with no passengers on board. Its index counts unique listings on its platform over the twelve months to 2 October 2026, plus future flights that were available when the survey was taken.
These are listings, not completed flights. A leg can be advertised and never sold, or sold and then cancelled when the operator's schedule changes. The index is a view of supply on one marketplace, not a count of aircraft movements, and should be read that way. SkyAccess's own index page was not available at the time of writing, so every figure below is attributed to SkyAccess as reported by Khaleej Times on 20 October 2026.
For how empty legs are created, how they are priced and when they are worth taking, see AVNET's guide to what an empty leg flight actually is. This piece is about where they are in the Gulf.
The headline numbers
SkyAccess counted 4,873 unique empty-leg listings touching an airport in the GCC. Of those, 1,748 connected two Gulf airports, meaning both the departure and the arrival were inside the region. The remainder linked a Gulf airport with somewhere outside it, such as London.
By country, the UAE dominated:
- UAE: 3,297 listings, 67.7 percent of the regional total
- Saudi Arabia: 1,603 listings
- Qatar: 916 listings
Because a single listing can touch two countries, the country figures overlap and do not add up to the regional total.
Where the Gulf's empty legs are
Unique empty-leg listings touching GCC airports, 2 October 2025 to 2 October 2026
Dubai's listings by airport
Top routes by listings
Why Al Maktoum, not DXB
The split between Dubai's airports is the clearest finding in the index. Al Maktoum's 2,509 listings are almost ten times Dubai International's 254.
That follows from where Dubai's private aircraft are based and handled. Dubai International is first a hub for scheduled airlines, with tight slot availability and limited apron space for business jets. Al Maktoum has become the emirate's primary business aviation airport, and the aircraft that position in and out of it generate the repositioning flights that become empty legs. AVNET's analysis of why Dubai is moving to DWC as its private aviation hub sets out the background, and the guide to the UAE's private aviation airports covers the facilities at each.
The practical point is simple. A flyer who will only depart from DXB is looking at roughly one in ten of the discounted seats available in Dubai. A flyer prepared to drive to Dubai South sees the rest.
Dubai to Riyadh is the busiest corridor
The index ranks routes by number of listings. The top five were:
| Route | Listings |
|---|---|
| Dubai to Riyadh | 349 |
| Dubai to Doha | 253 |
| Dubai to Kuwait City | 151 |
| Abu Dhabi to Riyadh | 73 |
| Abu Dhabi to Doha | 65 |
Khaleej Times reported that Dubai to Jeddah and Dubai to London also featured among the ranked corridors, without giving their counts.
Dubai to Riyadh leads by a wide margin. With 349 listings over the year, it averaged close to one a day. That reflects the volume of business travel between the two capitals: a client flown one way who stays leaves an aircraft to fly home empty. Abu Dhabi appears twice in the top five, but its counts are a fifth to a quarter of Dubai's on the same corridors.
What it means for price
SkyAccess says empty legs are typically priced 25 to 75 percent below a comparable full charter. That range is wide because the discount depends on the aircraft, how close the flight is to departure and whether the operator has another use for it.
The volume on a single corridor also matters. On Dubai to Riyadh, a flexible traveller is more likely to find a leg that roughly fits their dates, which is not the case on a thin route with a handful of listings a year.
The usual caveats apply. An empty leg runs on the operator's schedule, not the passenger's. The departure time can move, and if the original client changes plans, the leg can disappear altogether. Anyone who has to be in Riyadh for a fixed meeting should treat an empty leg as a bonus, not a booking.
The wider demand picture
The empty-leg figures sit alongside a broader rise in Gulf business aviation. In the same Khaleej Times report, Honeywell Aerospace's Global Business Aviation Outlook put UAE business jet departures at 5,475, up 102.2 percent over five years, and Saudi Arabia's at 3,727, up 42.2 percent.
More departures mean more repositioning flights, and more repositioning flights mean more empty legs to sell. The index suggests those seats are concentrated on a handful of short Gulf corridors and, in Dubai, almost entirely at one airport.
How to use this
For a Dubai-based flyer, three conclusions follow:
- Search from DWC. Nearly all of the discounted supply in Dubai departs or arrives there.
- Start with Riyadh, Doha and Kuwait City. These are the corridors with enough listings to make flexibility pay.
- Keep a fallback. A listing is an offer, not a guaranteed flight, and a fixed appointment still needs a booked charter or a scheduled seat behind it.
The index measures one marketplace over one year, and other platforms and brokers will show different inventory. But the direction is clear: in the Gulf, the empty-leg market is a Dubai market, and Dubai's is an Al Maktoum market.