Drilling down the Middle East aviation business through new Fleet Forecast Report

The independent view of the market spans 2011-2030, with predictions broken down by model series, seat categories and coverage split between seven world regions.

The Report looks at the fleet requirements in the Middle East and concludes that the wealthier nations of the region have invested heavily to move away from relying on oil exports for income. One of the sectors benefiting greatly from this is air travel as the importance of the Middle East as a tourist and business destination increases.

The development of the Middle East passenger aircraft fleet is really two separate stories of two distinct fleets: one for travel within the region and one taking a disproportionate share of global travel via the Middle East, the report says.

Although GDP per capita in the Middle East region is relatively low at around $12,000, this figure puts it past the steep growth section of Airbus’s travel growth curve. This average position hides some nations which are well behind others and represent growth potential for internal traffic.

Additionally, the region has a high proportion of its population that is young. As this demographic group grows up it will increase the number of air travellers. This is expected to lead to growth in domestic and intra-regional traffic but not at the pace of intercontinental traffic that passes through the region.

Growth in the long-haul fleet is being driven by ambition and global traffic growth. The region is geographically uniquely placed to reach an extraordinarily high proportion of the world’s population and wealth from its airports. Its continued investment in facilities, fleet and services are expected to enable  this region to take an increasing share of global traffic.

Despite weakening yields caused by the global downturn and the flu pandemic in 2009, the region’s airlines have not toned down their ambitious growth plans.

More details on the report and a free executive summary are available at: www.flightglobal.com/forecast