Advances in UAE aviation sector soar to new heights

Now acknowledged as the world’s leading aerospace event, last month’s Dubai Airshow showed how big players worldwide see this country as the place to be when it comes to aircraft. And the lift the industry gives the economy is only going to gain power.

Al Bateen Airport was used by the public during the 1970s and partly the 1980s. Archive Abu Dhabi Photos Black and White Courtesy Al Ittihad

Concrete on the extension of Dubai International Airport’s newly-refurbished runway had only been dry a couple of weeks by the time of the official formation of this country on December 2, 1971.

The extra 3,300 feet added to the runway together with a new terminal capable of handling 1,200 people in air-conditioned comfort was one of the early steps taken in advancing the country’s foothold in the aviation industry.

Forty-two years on and such advances have soared to new heights.

Dubai International is now the world’s second-busiest airport for international passengers, attracting more than 5 million passengers last month.

In 1972, the airport served nine airlines, connecting around 20 destinations. Today, passengers have a choice of more than 260 destinations offered by more than 145 carriers.

In order to accommodate future expansion, Dubai has built Al Maktoum International, located on the fringes of Dubai in Jebel Ali and planned to be capable of handling as many as 160 million passengers a year eventually.

In Abu Dhabi, growth in aviation has been equally fast. In 1972, the capital’s main airport was Al Bateen, built three years before and now serving as an executive airport.

In 1982, the emirate’s main facility moved to the Abu Dhabi International Airport, located 32km outside the city.

Today, the airport receives more than 1 million passengers a month.

To cater for rising demand, the airport is building its Midfield Terminal project, designed with an initial capacity of 30 million passengers.

Much of the recent growth across the industry has been propelled by the prodigious expansion of local carriers Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and flydubai. The trio have become among the giants of global skies.

In 1971 none of them existed.

When Emirates launched in March 1985 it relied on aircraft leased from Pakistan International Airlines. The airline leased Emirates an Airbus 300 and a Boeing 737, while the Dubai royal family gave the carrier two used Boeing 727-200s.

Etihad only launched a decade ago in November 2003 and has gone on to become the fastest growing airline in commercial aviation history.

Underscoring their growing clout, both carriers last month at the Dubai Airshow launched multibillion-dollar orders for new aircraft to cater for the next phase of their expansion. Emirates booked an order for 150 of Boeing’s new 777, in a deal worth US$76 billion at list prices, as well as 50 Airbus A380s, the world’s largest passenger plane, valued at $23bn. Etihad ordered 30 of Boeing’s 787-10 Dreamliners, as well as 25 next generation 777Xs, and a 777-200 freighter. In addition, it booked 87 aircraft from Airbus – including 50 A350 XWBs, 36 A320neos. And one A330-200F freighter.

Emirates’ sister airline, flydubai – which only launched in 2009 –weighed in with a $11.4bn order for 111 Boeing 737s and 738s.

Aside from organic growth of both airport infrastructure and carriers, the UAE’s aviation sector has developed in other ways, too.

Etihad has extended its reach by taking equity stakes in airlines stretching from Australia to Switzerland. The latest such deal, signed last month, involves the airline taking a 33.3 per cent stake in Darwin Airline, a Switzerland-based regional carrier. It already owns equity in Air Seychelles, Air Berlin, Virgin Australia, Air Serbia and Ireland’s flag carrier Aer Lingus. It is also expected to close a deal for a 24 per cent stake in India’s Jet Airways before the end of the year.

The “equity alliance” strategy has helped Etihad steer around the problem of limited landing rights in markets like Europe and elsewhere to continue growing.

The UAE has also managed to slot itself into the aerospace manufacturing supply chain. Strata Manufacturing, the advanced composite manufacturing plant in Al Ain owned by Mubadala Development, signed deals at the Dubai Airshow valued at up $5bn to provide composite materials and metallic aerostructure parts to Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Agreements were also unveiled with Rolls-Royce and GE Aviation to service and maintain engines made by the two companies.

Officials are targeting 20,000 jobs within the aerospace manufacturing business by 2030. Until then, aviation is likely to become an increasingly integral plank in the country’s economy.

Speaking at the Dubai Airshow, Boeing’s chief executive Jim McNerney perhaps best summed up the way aircraft makers view the aviation sector here, acknowledging the impact Arabian Gulf carriers have had on the industry.

“From time to time people wonder whether the infrastructure built out here is sustainable,” he said.

“But this region is for real.”