Emirates, one of the Middle East’s “big three” airlines and the world’s “most profitable” carrier has started expanding in China again. In early July, Emirates opened a new waypoint in Shenzhen, enabling direct flights between Dubai and the southern Chinese city. Direct Emirates flights to Hangzhou, Zhejiang will begin on 30 July.
Emirates entered China with freight flights from Dubai to Shanghai in 2002, before introducing passenger flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in 2004, 2006 and 2008, respectively. Its waypoints remained limited to these three cities until expanding rapidly to the two new cities this month.
The choice of new Emirates waypoints at Hangzhou and Shenzhen reflects both China’s outbound travel boom and Dubai’s efforts to establish itself as a tech-centric business hub. Shenzhen is home to many of China’s tech and innovation enterprises, and Hangzhou, the home of Alibaba, also hosts a range of innovative businesses. According to Emirates, business travellers are one of the main drivers for the new routes. But Hangzhou, with its long history and beautiful sights such as the West Lake, is also a tourist destination in its own right.
Emirates’ financial report showed that in FY2024-2025, it earned a record-breaking 34.9 billion USD, with pre-tax profit reaching 5.8 billion USD, making it one of the most profitable airlines in the world. The new waypoints are also a result of the new Freedoms of the Air talks between China and the UAE. With the increasing business cooperation between China and the Gulf countries, and mutual interest in tourism, Chinese airlines such as China Eastern are also expanding their presence in the Middle East.