Aircraft & Helicopter Trading in Dubai: Setup Guide

Dubai is a world capital of the air: airports among the busiest international hubs on the planet, a growing maintenance and business aviation pole, and a regional market — Gulf, Africa, Asia — that buys and sells used aircraft with a liquidity few marketplaces offer. In the middle of that ecosystem, the intermediary connecting a helicopter available in Europe with a tour operator in the Indian Ocean has its natural home here.

That figure has its own official activity in the DMCC catalogue, within its Aviation sector: “Aircrafts & Helicopters Trading”. This guide breaks it down: what it covers, what role the civil aviation authority plays and how a deal of this calibre is taxed.

The official activity: what it allows

The activity, code 5159-99, covers the trading of all types of civil aircraft and helicopters used for the purposes the catalogue itself lists:

• Passenger and cargo transport.
• Search and rescue.
• Tourism.
• Medical transport.
• Aerial observation and other civil uses.

The regulator: what the DCAA’s presence means

Unlike the “clean” commercial blocks of the catalogue, a sector regulator appears here: the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, the emirate’s civil aviation authority. The correct reading has two sides:

1. Trading is a commercial activity — you buy the aircraft, resell it and invoice the margin. The trading licence is the foundation.
2. The sector is regulated — civil aviation is not industrial scrap: whatever sector approvals apply to your specific operation are handled with the authority during the process, and it pays to scope them before signing the first sale mandate.

And one boundary that avoids trouble: selling aircraft is not operating them. Commercial flights, charter or aerial work require operator certificates and their own frameworks, just as each aircraft’s registration follows its own registry. The broker sells; the operator flies — they are different licences and often each other’s clients.

How the sale of an aircraft is taxed

As in the maritime business, VAT is where the margin is won or lost — with even higher per-unit amounts:

• The regulations provide a 0% rate for the supply of certain qualifying means of transport for commercial use, subject to their conditions.
• The export of the aircraft out of the country can also qualify for 0%.
• Outside those perimeters, the general 5% applies.

A single deal sails past the VAT registration threshold (mandatory from AED 375,000 in annual turnover), so registration and the classification of each transaction are prepared before the first invoice, not after. On profits, Corporate Tax at 9% above AED 375,000, with the qualifying free zone regime as a possible route to 0% subject to its conditions — and an accounting setup that treats each aircraft as high-value inventory: acquisition cost, positioning, pre-sale maintenance and the correct allocation of every expense to every deal.

Steps to set up the company

1. Activity and scope: confirm that 5159-99 reflects your operation (civil trading) and which sector approvals your specific case requires.
2. Structure and capital: a company with AED 50,000 in share capital.
3. Incorporation in the free zone and space as the registered address.
4. Banking: a corporate account prepared for very high-value transactions, with sale and purchase agreements, escrow deposits and full traceability.
5. VAT and accounting: registration and the 0%/5% classification defined before the first deal.
6. Operations: a sourcing network (operators, lessors, auctions), pre-purchase technical inspections and delivery and handover logistics.

Conclusion

Civil aircraft and helicopter trading has a clear entry structure in Dubai: a specific official activity, capital reasonable for the calibre of the business, no territorial restriction and the civil aviation authority as the designated sector regulator. The two keys to success are the same as with any high-value asset: respect the boundary between selling and operating, and reach the first deal with VAT and accounting already in place. The market — from the Gulf to Africa — has long been buying in Dubai.