As India’s outbound boom continues, Air India Express is now connecting a relatively underserved North East India to the Middle East - with flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi starting this August.
Stock image used for representational purposes | Credits- Air India
Air India Express (AIX) is launching a once a week connection to Dubai, operating every Tuesday from August 4th, and a similar weekly connection to Abu Dhabi operating every Friday from the 7th of August. With this, AIX now operates over 290 weekly flights across four stations in Northeast India- Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Dimapur and Imphal. The airline already has a sizeable presence in Guwahati, operating around 120 weekly flights and this route marks its first international operation from Guwahati.
This new route announcement came directly from the Chief Minister of Assam, on the 22nd of June. “With these non-stop services, Guwahati Airport is now connected to four countries- UAE, Thailand, Singapore and Bhutan,” said the Chief Minister on X. He also announced plans for an upcoming new flight to Vietnam, in an effort “to position Guwahati as a major travel and transit hub for Southeast Asia.”
X post by the Chief Secretary of Assam
Choosing Dubai as the first international bet from Guwahati was not a random choice. As per IATA’s 2024 India aviation data, the Middle East was the largest international destination region from India with 32.9% of India’s international traffic, with UAE alone being India’s largest international country with about 19.9% of total international traffic (7.6 million O-D passengers). Additionally, MEA’s January 2026 overseas Indian population data lists the UAE with about 4.34 million overseas Indians. That makes Dubai and Abu Dhabi not just leisure destinations, but family-visit, migrant-worker, SME-trade and employment-linked markets. That explains why UAE is is easier to sell and is more than just an experimental route for AIX and Guwahati.
With the new routes, passengers in the Northeast can reduce their dependence on connecting hubs such as Delhi and Kolkata for travel to the Gulf. Until now, international journeys from the region often meant an extra domestic leg before the passengers could access West Asia, adding time, cost and complexity. A direct Guwahati-Dubai link gives travellers a simpler route for business, leisure, employment-linked travel, family visits and onward international connections.
Image generated via AI for representational purposes.
Since Adani/GIAL has taken over the airport in October 2021, Guwahati has moved from being a largely domestic airport to a credible international airport. Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (GAU) has already been seeing stronger traffic- In FY 2024-25, the airport handled 6.57 million passengers, including 91,594 international passengers, its highest international footfall. After their new terminal became operational in February 2026, their annual capacity increased to 13.1 million passengers. Guwahati currently connects 21 domestic and 3 international routes, handling more than 130 aircraft daily movements. The proposed UAE flights come after the airport has already started testing its international network through Paro, Bangkok, and Singapore.
After joining Tata in 2022, AIX has nearly doubled its capacity with over a 100 aircraft (roughly two-thirds of which are new generation 737 MAX 8s) and is aiming for a fleet of ~300 aircraft. Their market share has also since tripled with a 25%+ YoY growth of passenger traffic. While the airline is serving 13 Gulf destinations, it is actively eyeing Tbilisi (its first European route) and more of Malaysia.
Stock Image used for representational purposes | Credits- Air India
Thus, the Guwahati-UAE launch is a small tile in a much bigger international mosaic for both AIX and GAU. For AIX, Guwahati–UAE is a small-frequency launch with larger strategic value that gives the airline another entry point into India’s Gulf traffic market. For Guwahati, it reinforces the airport’s shift from a regional domestic gateway to a serious international connector for the Northeast.