UAE business boom boosts MEBAA show

Managing director of the organising team from Tarsus, Tim Hawes, said numbers are up.

Speaking at a briefing ahead of the show, Hawes said that MEBAA was not just about the GCC region, but was also attracting a growing international audience.

“We are expecting more than 1,500 visitors to the show; we have 95 countries represented – our largest ever international pre-registration – and have a 10% increase in our exhibitor numbers. An incredible 42 of those companies are first-time exhibitors,” he said.

This is not a surprise to the MEBAA chairman, Ali Alnaqbi. Speaking at the briefing, Alnaqbi said that the business and private aviation sector was booming in the UAE.

“The Dubai market is really growing,” he said. “A lot of things have happened lately, especially Dubai Expo 2020, and now the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. But that impact is momentary.

“We are looking for continuation and healthy growth throughout the years to come. That is happening and we can see it in many areas, When I travel, I meet many people who have requests for aircraft to be registered in the UAE.”

There has been an increase in the number of aircraft from Russia and the Ukraine now operating from the UAE, but Alnaqbi said many other countries, too, were seeing the benefit of being based in the region.

“We can see there’s at least 25% growth from last year on the movement of aircraft – from the 2020 fiscal year-to-year. The indicators are very healthy and we can see the trend that the pandemic imposed on us by moving a lot of passengers from airline first-class and business-class to private and corporate aircraft continues. People don’t want to go back because they realise how good and convenient it is to fly privately and how inexpensive it is as well.”

Alnaqbi believes this adds to the attraction of the MEBAA show. “We need to be showing and assuring people that we can provide the right equipment and the right aircraft, so they can be very competitive when it comes to the pricing.”

With the UAE being rated among the top places in the world to live, it is no wonder that it is seen as popular base.

“There’s a lot of trust in the Middle East from investors,” Alnaqbi said. “A lot of corporates, too, are now moving their operation to UAE. With all the political upheaval in the world we are hoping to find a way to make these transactions easier, particularly to meet the demand to register aircraft here.”