Gama Aviation has brought its new Business Aviation Centre at Sharjah International Airport into full operation, a purpose-built fixed-base operator facility representing an investment of more than $60 million. The site includes a large hangar, dedicated ramp, passenger and crew facilities, rapid runway access and on-site handling and maintenance capability. The UK-based company has operated in Sharjah for more than a decade. The new centre marks a significant expansion of business-aviation infrastructure in the northern UAE even as commercial airspace across the wider Gulf continues to absorb the costs and delays of Iran-related restrictions and longer routings.
Scheduled airlines have spent months absorbing higher fuel burn, cancelled or suspended services, and the operational friction of avoiding constrained airspace. Private and business aviation, by contrast, continues to attract capital. Corporate and high-net-worth demand for flexible, point-to-point access into Dubai and the northern Emirates has not disappeared. In some cases it has been reinforced by the same disruptions that make commercial connections less reliable. An FBO that offers short taxi times, 24-hour operations and fewer slot constraints becomes more rather than less valuable when the broader system is under strain.
Sharjah’s position is deliberate. It is close enough to Dubai’s commercial and financial centres to serve as a practical gateway while avoiding some of the congestion and restrictions that affect the main Dubai airports. Gama’s decision to deepen its commitment there rather than simply follow the migration of business aviation traffic to Al Maktoum reflects a calculation that efficient, less constrained infrastructure will continue to attract operators even in a geopolitically unsettled region.
Whether business aviation proves structurally more resilient than scheduled carriers remains an open question. Private jets still face the same airspace rules and security assessments. Yet the willingness of operators and service providers to keep investing while commercial networks shrink suggests that a portion of high-value travel is finding ways around the disruption. Airlines are still paying the price of longer routes and thinner schedules. In Sharjah, the hangars are filling.