This article is devoted to the transition of the Arab countries to the new concept of sustainable development (SD) in tourism, sea and air transport. The challenges associated with the transition to sustainable development are implemented in state long-term strategies in the Arab countries. The surge of interest to this concept of development was also due to the release of the 17 UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015, which replaced the Millennium development goals. General questions of the development of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries at the beginning of the 21 century and the main prerequisites for creating large infrastructure facilities in the region owing to the increase of tourist inflow, especially the increasing number of Muslim pilgrims coming to Saudi Arabia, are considered at the beginning of the article. There is a brief overview of the national air carriers and the system of large air hubs in the UAE and Qatar and data on SDG Index No. 9 “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries for 2017 and 2018. The article is concluded with the results of the investigation on the effect that the Persian Gulf monarchies have achieved in the field of passenger and cargo transportation as well as the problems of operating aviation infrastructure facilities in the context of the transition to sustainable development; it is also shown that the economic downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the suspension of air travel in a number of countries in the spring of 2020, may have certain consequences. st