While the transatlantic corridor between Europe and North America is widely considered to be one of the world’s most lucrative aerial highways, there are also plenty of high-value services to be found between Europe and the Middle East. As well as selling their hubs as destinations in their own right, Middle Eastern airlines also look to attract connecting traffic to Asia and beyond.
According to present scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, there are 42,650 flights planned on routes between Europe and the Middle East this December. Collectively speaking, these services will offer grand totals of 10,171,306 seats and 23,760,435,486 available seat miles, but which airlines operate the most frequent routes? Let’s find out!
Qatar Airways Comes Out On Top
Cirium’s data shows that the airline operating the top Europe-Middle East route by frequency this December is Qatar Airways, which has planned 292 flights each way between Doha (DOH) and 
London Heathrow Airport (LHR) next month. The Boeing 777-300ER operates half of these, with the rest split between the Airbus A350-900, A350-1000, A380, and Boeing 777-200LR.
The total monthly figure of 292 round trips works out at an average of around 9.4 a day. Qatar Airways announced earlier this year that it would be boosting its coverage on the route from eight daily return flights to a maximum of 10 this winter, with these flights complemented by two daily rotations from its oneworld partner British Airways. Qatar Airways CCO, Thierry Antinori, said:
“The latest increase in flight frequency is a testament to our continual and unmatched enhancements of experiences for our passengers travelling through the Best Airport in the Middle East – Hamad International Airport.”
Other Big Hitters
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Dubai International Airport (DXB) is home to plenty of high-frequency European routes. Second overall this December is flydubai’s coverage on the corridor to Moscow Vnukovo (VKO), where it has planned 217 round trips. This works out at an average of seven per day, with coverage split between the 
Boeing 737-800 and the 737 MAX 8.
Elsewhere, Emirates operates almost an identical frequency on its route between Dubai and London Heathrow, with 213 flights planned in each direction this December. Most of these use the Airbus A380, but the Boeing 777-300ER also features from time to time. As detailed in the video below, Emirates’ huge London operation also sees it fly to Gatwick (LGW) and Stansted (STN).
Turkish Airlines is also a key player in the Europe-Middle East market, operating the fourth, fifth, and sixth-most frequent routes on this market in December 2025. Originating from its main hub at the new Istanbul Airport (IST), these popular corridors serve Jeddah (JED), Tehran (IKA), and Beirut (BEY) with respective monthly frequencies of 169, 138, and 132 flights in each direction.
Turkish Airlines Achieves $1.1 Billion Q3 Profit As Revenues Rise 5%
The carrier has also enjoyed a good start to Q4, with passenger traffic up by almost 20% in October.
Things Look Different When Measured By Seats
While operating frequencies are one way of illustrating a route’s popularity, they don’t necessarily tell the full story. Indeed, while, as previously mentioned, flydubai and 
Emirates have almost identical frequencies on their respective routes from Dubai to Moscow Vnukovo and London Heathrow, the latter corridor has almost three times as many seats each way (101,821 vs 36,650).
In fact, Emirates’ Dubai-Heathrow seat capacity is beaten only by Qatar Airways on its Doha-Heathrow route, which has 102,457 outbound and 102,501 inbound seats scheduled this December. Despite only operating three daily rotations, Emirates’ routes from Dubai to London Gatwick and Manchester (MAN) rank third and fourth in seats, with 54,031 and 52,746 each way respectively.
Rounding out the top five when it comes to seat capacity on routes between Europe and the Middle East this December is Etihad Airways, on its route from Abu Dhabi International (AUH) to London Heathrow. Operating four daily rotations, the UAE flag carrier is offering 50,820 seats each way on this route next month, with capacity split between the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-9.
