How Flag Carrier Airlines Are Rebranding Nation-States

PHOTO: Saim Munib on Unsplash

Commercial aviation has revolutionised the way we travel. Voyages that took weeks or months now take mere hours with airlines transporting billions of passengers every year and consequently shrinking our world.

However, commercial airlines do far more than transport people or make profits. They actively represent their home country on the international stage and forge links between regions. Commercial passenger aviation is therefore a space where power, reputation and diplomatic struggles for influence play out from the tarmac to the high skies.

As such, the use of airlines as an instrument of statecraft has become a significant asset for national governments to achieve their foreign policy objectives. Flag carriers are an important resource through which governments, through differing means, seek to encourage greater economic and diplomatic ties, project a strong national brand and gain global influence.

The relationship between the state and the airline

As air travel became more accessible and commonplace after the Second World War, national governments largely took the onus of operating and establishing airlines due to their significant capital investment requirements. Furthermore, because aviation rights were often negotiated directly between national governments, private owners exercised very little agency or influence in the sector. Very quickly, national governments realised the importance of a national flag carrier in being a de facto national ambassador for their country and for governments to have greater control over flight routes. 

This value of the flag carrier is evident with how the jet age coincided closely with the period of decolonisation. Many new states in the Global South saw state-owned airlines as a means to legitimate their national identity both domestically and internationally.

While governments started liberalising airlines by opening up ownership to private capital during the 1980s, most flag carriers still carry the responsibility of representing their home state by projecting its image to a global audience. Governments still often play a very active role in their flag carrier, even if their flag carrier has been privatised, through providing subsidies, limiting the formation of other airlines and regulating foreign ownership. 

Therefore, the airline industry cannot just be viewed as a market where private actors compete with each other without government interference. Rather, national flag carriers are a vital mechanism of statecraft through which governments pursue varying foreign policy objectives and seek to portray a carefully constructed national identity.

How Qantas helped find Australia’s ‘Spirit’

When it comes to airlines whose identity is inextricably linked to its home nation, one does not need to look further than Australia and one of its most cherished national institutions: Qantas.

Australia, constrained by its geographical isolation from the historical centres of Western power in Europe and North America, has always had ‘anxieties’ about its place in the world. A flag carrier like Qantas was therefore critical in federated Australia’s project to establish a distinct presence within a more interconnected planet.

This started in the 1930s when Qantas formed ‘Qantas Empire Airways’ where, in conjunction with Britain’s Imperial Airways, the airline introduced regular services to London via Singapore. Such action reflects Australia’s wider political aims in strengthening its imperial ties towards the UK and presenting itself as a loyal and trusted member within the British Commonwealth community and the Western world.

Then, after Qantas was nationalised in 1947, the carrier took its commitment to furthering Australian-Imperial bonds through the establishment of the ‘Kangaroo Route’ to the UK via Asia, which was the centrepiece of both Qantas’ revenue and network. As Australia formed closer ties with the US through the ANZUS treaty, Qantas further grew its offerings through the ‘Southern Cross Route’ which again connected Australia and the UK, but this time through the Western Hemisphere, including the US and the major centres of New York and San Francisco. Both these routes helped bring Australia closer to the Western world’s most significant population and economic hubs, facilitating greater movement of people and commerce and entrenching Australia firmly within the UK-US orbit. The goal of establishing greater ties with Australia’s two main Anglospheric allies was achieved.

PHOTO: A Qantas Boeing 707 at London’s Heathrow Airport in 1969, Barry Lewis on Wikimedia Commons

While Qantas may have privatised in the 1990s, the airline is still heavily linked to Australian diplomatic interests. Today, Qantas continues to portray itself as the solution to Australia’s ‘tyranny of distance’ problem. Famously, its marketing strategy is centred around Peter Allen’s ‘I Still Call Australia Home’, a song that celebrates a deep connection to Australia even as one may travel all over the world to places like New York and London.

Allen’s song has become synonymous with the Qantas brand itself, creating a sense of patriotic pride among Australians by constructing a unique identity which celebrates Australia’s place in the world rather than lamenting it. This marketing strategy also makes Qantas, and by extension Australia, appealing to international visitors. Qantas’ focus on tourism was formalised in 2016 when Qantas entered into a multimillion dollar agreement with Tourism Australia to boost one of Canberra’s most productive economic sectors. The airline therefore emerged as a crucial government instrument through which Australia actively sought to not just improve their global image but enhance their economic standing through tourism.

Qantas’ desire to connect Australians to the rest of the world is still at the foreground of their company strategy, evidenced by the much-anticipated ‘Project Sunrise’. The endeavour continues forth Qantas’ almost century-long mission of connecting Australia to the world’s main centres of global power through nonstop flights directly between Australia’s eastern coast and cities like London and New York. The first direct flight from Sydney to London is expected to launch in October 2027, on the specifically developed Airbus A350-1000ULR. However, the venture is not merely one of engineering ambition. Instead, Project Sunrise represents the most recent stage of Qantas’ ongoing mission from the 1930s: to link Australia to the main power centres of the Euro-Atlantic and to further entrench itself and its people in the Western world. Given Canberra’s continued desire to engage with the Anglosphere as a geopolitical concept, Project Sunrise therefore aligns significantly with the Australian government’s diplomatic and geopolitical interests in reaffirming itself as a Western nation, determined to further entrench itself within the UK-US led world of culture, diplomacy and politics.

All planes go through Dubai and Emirates

Perhaps no airline has been more critical in cultivating a state’s image and prosperity than the UAE’s flag carrier Emirates, based out of Dubai. Since starting from humble beginnings in 1985 with just two routes, the airline now serves 140 destinations across six continents and has transformed Dubai into one of the world’s most important global hubs to transport people, business and culture. Emirates’ success has been built off the UAE’s unique geographical position, situated at the nexus of Europe, Asia and Africa — 80 per cent of the global population lives within an eight hour flight of Dubai. Therefore, unlike Qantas which sought to counteract distance, Emirates has leveraged its geography by capitalising on its global centrality to create one of the world’s most expansive hub-and-spoke networks, in turn transforming Dubai into a vibrant and bustling city, built around its connectivity.

PHOTO: Countries with at least one Emirates destination as of July 2026, created by Rahul Deepak Kumar on mapchart.net using information from Emirates 

Unlike other fossil fuel dependent Emirates and Gulf states, Dubai’s energy exports are relatively minimal, meaning the Dubai government was more open to economic diversification away from fossil fuels than other cities and states in the region. Therefore, the airline, which is owned by the Dubai government through the Emirates group, sought to affirm its international presence through positioning itself as an intercontinental aviation hub. Not only has Emirates been beneficial for Dubai’s global tourism where it was the sixth most visited city worldwide in 2025, but it has also cemented the city as a vital global commercial node, now widely recognised for being favourable for global business expansion and multinational investment.

The importance of Emirates and Dubai in global aviation was laid bare this year when the Iran-Israel conflict shut down airspace in the Gulf, sending commercial aviation into ‘cardiac shock’. Tourism and cargo slowed down significantly as airlines had to use more tedious routes instead of the valuable tri-continental intersection in the Gulf. Dubai itself had a major economic slowdown with the city’s financial markets dipping when its most important economic sector literally ground to a halt. Therefore, for places like Dubai and the UAE, aviation is not just a luxury sector but a strategic asset which underpins its prosperity and security.

Additionally, Emirates’ influence goes beyond the tarmac, with the airline boasting a substantial global sponsorship portfolio to portray the UAE and Dubai as a globally prestigious, cosmopolitan and desirable location. From the world’s biggest football teams, like Real Madrid, to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the airline has established a broad and ubiquitous presence in the cultural spheres of sport and art. Sponsorships of such notable events and brands further enhances Dubai’s reach and visibility and cements the city as globally prestigious and attractive.

PHOTO: Dubai Airport and Emirates lie at the heart of Dubai’s economy, Muhammad Ahmad on Unsplash

Ultimately, Emirates has been a vital asset of statecraft for the UAE to build its international brand and promote tourism. By establishing itself as the conduit of global aviation, Emirates has given Dubai unprecedented status as a global economic and cultural superpower.

Turkish Airlines: The country’s greatest asset?

For Türkiye, its flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, has emerged as a crucial geopolitical asset in Türkiye’s bid to affirm its regional power status in the Global South.  

Like Emirates, Turkish Airlines has also utilised the centrality of Istanbul as an aviation hub to aid Türkiye in fostering a greater international presence and image. Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world with Istanbul airport being the second busiest airport in all of Europe. The airline has leveraged its location to help boost tourism in Türkiye with a stopover program, which provides transit passengers the opportunity to explore Istanbul with free accommodation. The program has had over 200,000 customers since 2017, complementing a rise in Türkiye as a popular tourist destination over the last decade. The Istanbul stopover program demonstrates how airlines can work in concert with states to promote tourism and economic activity by transforming transit cities into attractive tourist destinations.

However, beyond tourism, the airline’s greatest value to Türkiye has come in its role in advancing the nation’s geopolitical ambitions as an emerging regional power, particularly within the Middle East and Africa. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan even outlined his vision for Turkish Airlines (where the largest stakeholder is the Turkish state) as being the driver of Türkiye’s vision of regional multilateralism, where they can project strength and influence.

In the last few decades, the Turkish government has made a concerted effort to strengthen its engagement and diplomatic ties in the Gulf region through economic integration, with their flag carrier being central to this mission. Between 2005–11, Turkish Airlines added 13 Gulf destinations to its network, corresponding with a sharp increase in both the bilateral trade volume between Türkiye and several Gulf states and in Gulf tourism to Türkiye. The airline’s Gulf expansion has also been complemented by the Turkish government’s relatively liberal visa policy where they have formed reciprocal visa agreements with Gulf states like Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, making travel between destinations easier and bolstering bilateral flows of people and commerce. Airlines have subsequently been a method through which Türkiye has enmeshed itself into the Gulf region, facilitating greater access to opportunities for the state and its people.

PHOTO: Alireza Akhlaghi on Unsplash

Furthermore, Türkiye has been even more ambitious in Africa by using its airlines to not just achieve regional integration but actively project power. The carrier serves over 50 destinations in Africa, coinciding with increased Turkish trade to Africa and allowing Ankara to open up and be a valued regional partner of one of the world’s fastest growing economic regions. Beyond route connectivity, the airline actively helps in enhancing the continent’s aviation infrastructure, forming a part of Türkiye’s mission to establish itself as an emerging geopolitical and humanitarian influence in Africa. For example, Türkiye helped rebuild the Aden Adde international airport in Somalia, before Turkish Airlines started regular services to the airport from 2012. Türkiye was also a significant source of foreign aid to Somalia with Turkish Airlines playing a significant role in transport and distributing this aid. For Somalia, a state afflicted by conflict and instability in the period prior to 2012, Türkiye’s generosity helped open the country up to the international sphere. Today, Türkiye remains one of Somalia’s most critical bilateral partners, underlining in a snapshot as to how Turkish Airlines helped Ankara in its mission to establish itself as a respected and formidable power and ally in the continent.

Aircraft as a form of statecraft

Ultimately, airlines are not merely companies but also national assets that governments can use to achieve varying foreign policy interests. Whether it is Qantas seeking to overcome Australia’s ‘tyranny of distance’, Emirates transforming Dubai into the crossroad of global aviation or Turkish Airlines projecting Türkiye’s growing influence as a regional power, flag carriers have emerged as critical instruments through which governments achieve various national objectives across social, economic and political domains. So when thousands of passenger planes take off every day from airports worldwide, they don’t just transport people. Rather, their operating airlines are leveraged by their host states to compete for influence and help achieve their national strategies in the skies.