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The return of the Dubai Airshow next week to Dubai World Central (DWC), the unfinished future home of the world’s largest airport, is symbolic.

The biennial show’s choreography will be familiar: fighter jets in elegant formation, wide-body aircraft snarling down the runway and helicopters slicing the air. But the real spectacle isn’t confined to the sky. It’s in the closed-door rooms where deals, partnerships and future routes are hammered out. The star attraction remains flying taxis – eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) will take pride of place with test demonstrations, mock-ups and operational briefings. Companies such as Joby Aviation and Archer are still pushing for a 2026 launch of eVTOL passenger services between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Such optimism invites scrutiny. Certification is complicated, battery density still falls short of commercial requirements and early users will probably only be those able to afford premium pricing. Still, few places can match the UAE’s capacity to build infrastructure at speed and holding the event at DWC only reinforces that momentum. The airshow functions as the sector’s deal-making furnace. Previous editions have seen tens of billions of dollars committed on the tarmac, wide-body orders, defence packages and long-term service agreements.

The full cast of aviation powerbrokers will be in attendance: Boeing and Airbus with their supply-chain headaches and stretched delivery schedules; Gulf carriers Emirates, Etihad and new player Riyadh Air pushing expansion and next-generation fleets; defence giants looking to secure long-horizon programmes; and aerospace companies breaking ground in the Middle East. It’s a gathering where strategy chiefs, government delegations, manufacturers and financiers mix with an unusual ease. Everyone understands that this is the room where tomorrow’s aviation map is drawn.

And for all the deals and strategy sessions behind the scenes, the airshow extends a hand to the public. The Skyview grandstand will again offer families a vantage point from which to observe the aerial acrobatics, a reminder that aviation can still enchant, even as the sector wrestles with its heaviest challenges.

Sustainability is likely to dominate corporate conversations – and the industry finally appears to be moving beyond platitudes and towards climate action instead. Dubai Airports is preparing a sustainability showcase for the event, highlighting operational innovations, energy-efficiency systems, waste-reduction measures and emerging propulsion options. Still, the broader sector is in a bind: sustainable aviation-fuel production is nowhere near scale, hydrogen is promising but distant and electrification is only beginning to consider short-haul mobility. The airshow will present glimpses of a greener future but also lay bare just how far from that horizon the commercial fleet remains.

Dubai Airshow 2025 arrives at a moment of flux in which technology is advancing faster than regulation can catch up. Ambition is everywhere. Scepticism is warranted. But the aviation industry should ready itself to witness the winds of change next week.

Inzamam Rashid is Monocle’s Gulf correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Read next: Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein on the race to put flying taxis into the sky