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Dubai Taxi Company and National Taxi announced the five-year renewal of their strategic agreement with Hala on Wednesday. The extension will see the operators provide more than 7,700 taxis, excluding airport fleets, for booking through Hala on the Careem app. This builds the platform to more than 26,000 captains and 13,000 taxis in total. Nearly 120 million trips by the two operators have been booked via Hala since the partnership started in 2019, according to a joint statement.
Hala launched in 2019 as the first homegrown e-hailing joint venture between Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority and Careem. The platform integrated licensed taxi operations with private-sector ride-hailing technology at scale across the Middle East. The renewed deal reaffirms collaboration on digital services that have become a primary access point for residents and visitors seeking taxis in Dubai.
The agreement supports the Roads and Transport Authority target of shifting 80 percent of taxi trips to electronic booking by 2030. RTA data placed 2025 ridership across the sector at 209 million passengers, a 4.2 percent increase from 2024, with 45 percent of trips completed via e-hail platforms. That e-hail share rose 13 percent year on year, reflecting accelerated adoption of app-based services.
Dubai Taxi Company, established in 1994, holds the largest fleet in the emirate with a 59 percent market share. The company recorded 53 million trips in its taxi and limousine segments during 2025, while its overall fleet across all mobility units expanded 18 percent to 11,126 vehicles. Company figures also show revenue climbed 13 percent to $672 million for the full year.
National Taxi began operations in 2000 and maintains licensed concessions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The operator ran more than 2,700 vehicles with 5,163 driver partners and achieved 25.4 million trips in the year ended July 2025 at a 90 percent utilisation rate. Seventy-seven percent of its fleet consisted of electric or hybrid vehicles that year.
Mansoor Rahma Alfalasi, group CEO of Dubai Taxi Company, said in the statement that the renewal allows partners to build on progress made together, strengthen integration between services and continue to improve quality of service and customer experience. Khaled Nuseibeh, CEO of Hala, stated, “Since 2019, Hala has grown from a pilot with a couple of thousand vehicles into one of the region’s most established e-hailing platforms, and DTC, along with our other partners, has been foundational to that journey.” He added that the partnership has revolutionised access to public transportation through e-hailing and the renewal will keep raising the bar for customers with faster, more reliable service via the Careem app.
