Rumblings of a tie-up between UAE giants Emirates and Etihad Airways heard throughout the year have reached a crescendo with a report that Dubai-based Emirates is in preliminary talks on a takeover of its Abu Dhabi rival.

After their decade of rapid growth left no corner of the globe untouched, the major Gulf carrier have entered an unsettled period, necessitating a more nuanced approach to network development.

After years of eye-catching expansion, the big Gulf carriers have spent much of the last 18 months taking stock, with a resulting impact on traffic and capacity growth.