Is my employer required to pay for an annual flight ticket home in the UAE?

An annual flight ticket home is not a legal requirement in the UAE; it is a contractual benefit that some employers offer and others do not. The Labour Law does not oblige private employers to fly staff home every year, which is why practice varies so much between companies. What the law does require is different: at the end of your employment, the employer generally bears the cost of returning you to your home country, unless you move to another employer in the UAE or the law places that cost on you because of how the employment ended. So the statutory entitlement is a repatriation ticket at the end of service, not a yearly holiday flight. That said, if your offer letter, contract, or staff handbook promises an annual ticket, that promise is enforceable as a term of your employment even though no statute requires it, so it is worth re-reading your documents carefully before accepting the company's position. If a written benefit is being denied, you can pursue it through MOHRE like any other contractual entitlement. If your contract documents are ambiguous on the point, a licensed UAE lawyer can tell you whether the promise is enforceable.