Emirates and flydubai Join Forces to Boost Dubai’s Cashless Payment Drive

Dubai has its eyes firmly set on ditching banknotes, and two of its biggest airlines are now officially on board. Emirates and flydubai have just inked agreements with Dubai’s Department of Finance (DOF) to push the city’s “Dubai Cashless Strategy” forward—an initiative that aims to make nine out of ten transactions in the emirate fully digital by the end of 2026. Not a small ambition, but spot on with how the global economy is moving.

The timing makes sense. Figures show that Dubai attracted more than 18.7 million visitors in 2024, and many of them still prefer paying cash for taxis, meals or everyday bits. For the city, that looks like a missed trick, given the economic upside of nudging travellers towards digital wallets and contactless cards.

The two MoUs were signed in the presence of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, a familiar figure in aviation circles, along with senior executives from both airlines and DOF. Emirates’ Deputy President and CCO Adnan Kazim called the partnership a chance to “accelerate digital payment adoption across our tourism ecosystem,” while flydubai’s CCO Hamad Obaidalla described it as “a pivotal step” towards making visitor experiences simpler and more secure.

I reckon the practical side of this matters most. Emirates already runs 14 different global payment gateways, and both carriers’ loyalty programme, Skywards, works entirely in digital currency. So, for a tourist landing in Dubai, the idea is that from booking the ticket to tapping to pay for a desert safari, going cashless will feel seamless. That said, there’s always the question of inclusivity—will the visitors who aren’t used to digital payments find it a bit of a faff?

Dubai Finance, for its part, stressed that these partnerships will help widen adoption across the tourism-heavy audience. As Ahmed Ali Muftah from DOF put it, the goal is to position Dubai as a leader in what he calls “digital tourism.” And believe it or not, the government expects the policy could add more than AED 8 billion to the economy every year through fintech services.

Personally, the first time I tried to attend a startup event in Dubai armed with only Apple Pay, I half expected to get stuck at some restaurant still demanding dirhams in cash. Instead, it all worked a treat—coffee, metro, and even a little corner shop. That’s when it clicked for me how game-changing this can be if scaled properly. For young startups across MENA, this shift also screams opportunity: new apps, loyalty tools, and integrations that ride on the back of a city pretty much going cashless.

Of course, there’s still work to do. The MoUs aren’t just about joint press photos; they’ll involve knowledge-sharing, training programmes, and possibly campaigns to convince tourists to ditch cash. One idea floating around is to offer incentives—so imagine discounts or perks for choosing digital payments instead of handing over paper notes.

Dubai’s Economic Agenda, known as D33, clearly threads through all this—using innovation in payments as a magnet for competitiveness. Whether the city hits its target of 90% cashless by 2026, we’ll have to wait and see. But having Emirates and flydubai pushing the message globally certainly raises the stakes.

From where I sit at Arageek, supporting founders and innovators in the region, this feels like a textbook case of how big players teaming up with government can create runway for startups too. If you’re building a fintech product in MENA, Dubai’s push into cashless life could be a golden ticket—or shall I say, a bit of a no-brainer.

And yes, while nothing in tech land is ever 100% smooth, I’m definately more inclined to believe that a visitor-friendly digital ecosystem will only make Dubai’s star shine brighter on the world stage.

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