In recent decades, the Middle East has established itself as a vital region when it comes to worldwide long-haul connectivity. While the area's airports are keen to market their cities as worthwhile destinations in their own right, they also handle a tremendous amount of transit traffic where guests fly in from all corners of the globe, using these hubs' convenient location as an ideal stopover in the middle of a much longer trip across the world.

For this reason, the 'big three' Middle Eastern airlines, namely Emirates and Etihad Airways from the United Arab Emirates (based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively) and Qatar Airways from Doha, are among the few carriers that have made the Airbus A380 work. The double-decker quadjet was designed to serve such carriers' 'hub-and-spoke'

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