The Case For an Arab Regional Airliner
Why the Arab World Must Take Flight on Wings of Her Own Making.
From the experiments of Abbas ibn Firnas from the age of Andalusian Cordoba, the region that once mapped the stars and charted the heavens has always viewed flight with fascination and admiration. Yet, while our skies teem with aircraft bearing the logos of Emirates, Saudia, and Qatar Airways, none of these magnificent machines are of our own design or making. This glaring absence in the Arab industrial and technological landscape is not merely a matter of prestige; it is a question of sovereignty, economic resilience, and regional capability in a world increasingly defined by control over critical industries. Here, I argue for the creation of a sovereign Arab regional airliner — designed, built, and supported in the Arab world. Such an endeavour would not only address strategic vulnerabilities but also unlock tremendous economic, industrial, and technological benefits for the region. Such an aircraft is not merely a machine; it is industrial self-respect, economic foresight, and strategic necessity wrapped in carbon fiber and aluminum.
The Middle East has come a long way from being purely a technical stop for flights between East and West. Take a look at the bustling terminals of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Dubai, Amman, Bahrain, and Cairo and it isn’t hard to notice carriers like Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Saudia which thrive on the global hub-and-spoke model. Widebodies like 777s, 787s, A330s and A350s dominate their fleets, optimized for the long-haul while narrowbodies like A320neos and 737s help maintain feeder routes to their respective hub airports. However current fleets are just either too big and too expensive to operate at lower demand levels, which makes it fairly evident why many arab carriers like Royal Jordanian, Oman Air, Gulf Air and even the region’s largest airline Saudia, continue to be loss making and would have gone under had it not been for constant state support.
Therefore it should be recognised that beneath the stratospheric glamour lies a neglected layer of regional connectivity, incredibly crucial for secondary cities, economic diversification, and intra-Arab trade. The market for regional jets (typically seating 70–120 passengers) is vast and growing, especially in the Global South. These aircraft are the lifeblood of connectivity between smaller cities and larger hubs, ideal for short to medium routes under 2,000 km. The Red Sea, Mediterranean and the Gulf are growing hotspots for tourism, and will most definitely benefit from better point-to-point access. Furthermore, there is enormous seasonal demand connecting smaller cities in the Middle East and North Africa region to the pilgrimage routes serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina during the Hajj. Regional routes connect cities with deep heritage and economic promise, and yet the aircraft plying these skies are Embraers, ATRs, Bombardiers, and Airbuses. There is sadly not a single Arab-built aircraft in development nor commercial service. There are close to 800 aircraft on the order books for various Middle Eastern carriers until 2029, while forecasts from manufacturers like Airbus estimate a demand for over 3000 new passenger and freight jets in the MENA and surrounding African regions in the next two decades. The opportunity is not just theoretical, it is commercial.
Missed Opportunities and What They Teach Us
Arab nations have flirted with civilian and military aersoapce ambitions before. In the 1960s, before gravitating towards the Soviet sphere of influence, Nasserist Egypt pursued indigenisation of its aircraft by building the HA-200 Jet trainer under licence from Spain, and planned a derived 6-12 seater business jet, designated the HA-56/230, but it never got off the drawing board. In more recent years, veteran aircraft manufacturer Antonov and Saudi Arabian company Taqnia Aeronautics co-developped the An-132 light transport aircraft, envisaged as a replacement of the An-32 with western components, however the project was ultimately shelved in 2019 with the sole prototype later being heavily damaged during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These days, the UAE has made forays with Calidus developing military platforms like light trainer and attack aircraft. Yet, in civil aviation, not a single programme has survived past prototype or negotiation. These projects, though ambitious, ultimately reveal a chronic pattern: the absence of sustained industrial will and coherent regional cooperation.
Even if we were to zoom out to explore our neighbours who also have similar aerospace ambitions, we would find similarly disappointing results. In 2015, the Turkish government launched the Turkish TRJ328 and TRJ628 regional aircraft projects, based on a modernized Dornier 328/328JET design, with either turboprops or jets for civil transport, military operations, medical evacution, or freighter or utility missions, forecasting a market of 500-1000 aircraft. However in 2017 the programme was abandoned due to several political and economic constarints, and the project was deemed no longer to be commercially feasible. Over in the Indian subcontinent there is some hope however, in both the NAL Saras pusher turboprop business jet, which has been in development since the 1980s facing several cancellations and revivals over the years, and the Indian Regional Jet Project, a 70-90 seater aircraft derived from the design of the NAL Saras expected to be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and take to the skies by 2026, however there has been limited updates about the project.
Today, some of the few regional airliners that are serving the sector are the venerable BAe 146, the Bombardier CRJ series and the newer Embraer EJets. Infact, Royal Jordanian and Oman Air have placed orders for more Embraer jets, displaying the demand for the class of aircraft. The value of regional aviation is served by foreign-built solutions. Each Embraer sold is a missed opportunity for domestic industry, technical capacity-building, and economic sovereignty.
However the state of the regional aerospace industry isn’t all so gloomy. The push for civil and defence aerospace autonomy by Arab states today has yielded some degree of manufacturing capacity, for example Egypt and Saudi Arabia are able to manufacture and assemble components and spare parts of their air force jets like wings of the F-15SA, airframes of the Hawk and Karakoram K-9 trainer jets. There are also companies in Morocco and the UAE that manufacture certified composite aerostructures for Boeing and Airbus aircraft, contributing to the global supply chain. Therefore there is great potential for the design and production of a sovereign Arab jet.
Designing the ArabJet
The Arab world spans a geographic range that cries out for regional air transport. From Alexandria to Al Ain, Muscat to Marrakech, intra-regional routes are underdeveloped, underutilized, and underserved. A modern regional jet designed with hot-and-high performance, short take-off and landing capabilities, and lean maintenance profiles would open up connectivity between secondary cities without relying on hubs. This would foster the growth of tourism for historical towns and hidden gems across the Red Sea, Mediterranean and Khaleeji coasts and improve intra-GCC and intra-Maghreb business links. There is also the potential to configure the aircraft for emergency and disaster relief in rugged terrain across the MENA region.
Some key design requirements for the Arab Regional Jet would be:
A 70-120 seat twinjet, optimised for flights under 2000 km and fast turnaround times for high-frequency regional operations and charters.
Fly-by-wire, composite-heavy design with a modular cabin configurable for passengers, cargo, VIP or medevac missions.
Designed for low-cost operations and rugged maintainability for operation in airports with limited MRO support.
Powered by efficient propulsion solutions suitable for scorching Gulf temperatures and mountainous airports like Amman or Taif as well as short-runway capability.
This aircraft must not be a clone of what the West has built. It doesn’t need to compete with the A220 or E195-E2 overnight. It needs to carve a niche; let the ArabJet be designed for Arabia.
A critical part of the design would be ease of maintenance. Simplified systems, with fewer parts and easy access for routine maintenance checks, would be key. Establishing a network of regional MRO facilities is essential for long-term success. Local maintenance, repair and overhaul hubs could be set up in major airports like Jeddah, Dubai, Doha, and Riyadh to ensure the aircraft’s operational reliability in the region.
Beyond physical infrastructure, the ArabJet program would necessitate a unified regulatory framework to oversee aircraft certification, continued airworthiness, and operational safety across the region. A collaborative Arab Aviation Authority, analogous to the EU’s EASA perhaps built upon the spirit of the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO), established in 1965 to coordinate regional airline operations, could serve as the cornerstone for this effort. Such a body would not only expedite aircraft certification under a harmonized Type Certification Basis derived fromderived from Primary Certification Codes like CS-25 and FAR-25 standards but also pave the way for international recognition of Arab-built airframes and components, securing their place in global skies.
The Competition is Fierce, But So is the Opportunity
There’s no doubt that the expansion of air travel across the MENA region will most definitely help to offset the physical and economic challenges that marr the construction of road and rail across the dunes and mountains of the Arab world. Since many areas lack the necessary population density to make rail travel viable across the vast expanse of desert. Furthermore, despite the added emissions from air travel, which are ever reducing due to the constant evolution of propulsion technology, the overall environmental impact of not just building a modest terminal and runway but also operating a fleet of aircraft leaping over vast distances will be far less than the disruption caused by the construction of multi lane highways and high speed rail lines. Therefore the main competitor to the future ArabJet would neither be capital nor expertise, but the competition from existing comparable aircraft that roll off the production line.
The Embraer EJet has a strong presence in the MENA region with airlines in Jordan, Iraq and Oman, but also serving state oil companies like Saudi Aramco. Its low operating costs and good short-field performance makes it a solid competitor. The Airbus A220 offers larger capacity and better fuel efficiency, however it isn’t ideal for every regional route, particularly those with lower passenger demand. Russian and Chinese jets have a small operational footprint in the region, though they could be marketed as an alternative to western-made jets due to its cost competitveness. However their limited international ceritifcation and lack of reasonable maintenance infrastructure could deter MENA airlines from procuring them.
The future ArabJet would have to exploit the regions unique requirements if it intends to thrive in this competitive market, offering higher fuel efficiency, modular cabin options and tailored performance for hot and high operations.Not only could it work well to serve the regions extensive hub-and-spoke model airlines, bringing the peripherals closer to regional capitals, but also improve connectivity by offfering bespoke point-to-point routes bringing religious tourists to places like Mecca, Medina, Najaf, Karbala, etc, and eco tourists to the ports on the Gulf and the Red Sea.
Conclusion: From Ambition to Ascent
The development of a homegrown Arab Regional Jet would have major strategic benefits for the region, including the creation of jobs, the development of local aerospace expertise, and the promotion of technological independence. Other emerging nations like Brazil with Embraer and China with COMAC have proved that aerospace industries could rise outside the Euro-American duopoly with discipline, state backing, and regional markets. There is great export potential to neighbouring regions like Africa and Central and South East Asia, where shared environmental conditions and economic realities could make the ArabJet more competitive.
The Arab world has too often remained a customer in markets it could have helped shape. Nowhere is this more evident than in the aerospace sector, where lost chances litter our modern history like abandoned blueprints. This regional jet will not just fly passengers, it would redefine the aerospace supply chain in the Arab world. Afterall it isn’t just a plane, but a seed for the entire aerospace ecosystem. With the growing interest in aerospace capabilities, there must be a push for sovereign airliner manufacturing in MENA. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar have the financial backing and the infrastructure to support such a project, which could lead to a more resilient aviation ecosystem in the region. An Arab Regional Jet would be a symbol of local capability and a boost to the region's geopolitical influence.
Ofcourse total self-reliance in aerospace is not necessarily optimal in the hyper-globalized, highly specialized aircraft manufacturing world. Afterall, even Airbus relies on Japanese composites, American avionics, and Canadian landing gear. However leveraging components from the global supply chain, relying on diverse, commercial-off-the-shelf systems may make Arab aircraft more competitive and increase cost efficiency. The next aircraft order shouldn’t necessarily come from Seattle or Toulouse. It should come from Riyadh, Dubai, or Cairo. The ArabJet would mark more than the birth of a new aircraft, it would herald the dawn of an aerospace renaissance across the Arab world. If we are to speak of sovereignty in this century, it must be built not only in parliaments and ports but in assembly halls, wind tunnels, and airspace too. The time is no longer for speculation. It is to build.
An interesting thesis, and I can absolutely see where you're coming from. The reality right now though is that the sheer complexity of a new part 25 aeroplane is beyond any single country except for the USA and China. So I'd council anybody proposing such a plan to start rather lower down the ladder - creating sub-assembly capability for larger aeroplanes, creating part 23 design and manufacture capability, but with a long-term scale-up objective. Your Arab-Jet needs to be the end point of perhaps a 15 year plan, not the initial objective.