UAE: Dubai International Airport Earns 4.5% Passenger Traffic

Dubai International Airport, the emirate’s largest airport, received 7.85 million passengers in March, a 4.5 per cent increase from the same period in 2017, boosted by the Easter holidays, operator Dubai Airports said.

In total for the first quarter passenger arrivals climbed to just over 22.74 million, up 1.1 per cent, compared to the 22.49 million recorded during the same period in 2017.

That was despite the number of passenger flights falling 1.5 per cent to 34,126 in March from 34,634 in the same month last year, although passengers per flight continued to be above industry average in March at 230 - a 2.7 per cent rise from 224 in the corresponding period of 2017.

Year-to-date flight numbers came in at 98,839 down 1.8 per cent compared to 100,638 recorded during the first quarter of 2017.

London topped the list of destination cities in March, Dubai Airports said, accounting for 348,434 passengers. Mumbai followed, with 216,970 passengers, then Bangkok with 208.873 passengers.

Meanwhile, India remained the top destination country with a total of 1.04 million passengers, followed by the UK with 572,080, Saudi Arabia with 566,292, Pakistan with 389,090 and Germany with 279,087.

The destination markets with the biggest growth in passenger numbers were Eastern Europe with a 29.8 per cent year-on-year rise, followed by the Russian states (CIS) at 28.3 per cent.

Dubai International handled 222,045 tonnes of freight in March, a 5.7 per cent drop from 235,503 tonnes during the same period last year, as Dubai’s second airport, Al Maktoum International, is increasingly used for airborne cargo traffic.


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TURKEY: TAV To Development Three Saudi Airports

Turkish airport operator TAV is in talks with banks to obtain $250 million of financing needed for the development of three airports in Saudi Arabia, the company’s president Mustafa Sani Şener said on Tuesday.

TAV Airports Holding, in partnership with the local Al Rajhi Holding Group, was selected over the last couple of months to operate Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu, Qassim and Hail international airports for 30 years.

Meanwhile, the Turkish company has completed the buyout of construction conglomerate Saudi Oger’s stake in the consortium behind Saudi Arabia’s Medina international airport, Şener told reporters.

Saudi Oger had a 33.3 per cent stake in the consortium, Tibah Airports Development Co; TAV has signed an agreement to buy half of that stake and Al Rajhi is buying half, Şener said.

That will leave TAV owning 50 per cent of the consortium.

Meanwhile, Dubai’s two airports are likely to welcome a combined total of 90 million passengers by the end of 2017, according to Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports.

In a speech in Dubai on Tuesday, Griffiths said, however, that the aviation industry is expected to face challenges this year including oil prices, slower global economic growth, and political unrest.

“If we look forward, the projection for passenger growth in Dubai remains very, very strong…As we edge up towards 2025, we believe that, globally, demand for air travel through Dubai will hit about 142.8 million — 118 million of that we’ve got to accommodate in our existing airport, Dubai International by 2023,” he said.

In 2016, Dubai International welcomed 83.6 million passengers, marking a 7.2 per cent increase year-on-year. The airport is one of the world’s busiest, following airports in Atlanta in the US and Beijing.

“We are on the cusp of opening and finalising expansion of the airport terminal at Dubai World Central Al Maktoum International, which would give us capacity to 26 million by 2018, and of course, Dubai World Central phase 2 is scheduled to open by 2025 with an initial capacity of something like 120 million, with the space to grow significantly beyond that to double the capacity,” Griffiths said.

Earlier this week, the Dubai government announced it had secured $3 billion in credit facilities to expand both the emirate’s airports to enable them to handle increased capacity.

Speaking at the Airport Show, which kicked off on Monday, the CEO cited “destabilising” factors impacting the aviation industry on the short term such as oil prices. He said that lower oil prices gave airlines an opportunity to restructure their business, and an oil price correction might halt that restructuring.

“Of course, the global economy is rather soft at the moment. There’s a huge amount of political unrest. I hope that we never have to live through another year like last year. Of all the things that have happened, thank goodness in France there seems to be a bit more stability and forward-thought being brought back in,” Griffiths said, referring to the election of centrist Emmanuel Macron as France’s president.

On the long term, challenges facing the industry include resource scarcity, urbanization, economic balance of power, and changes in technology.

He said it was absolutely clear, however, that air travel remains an aspirational commodity, with emerging markets being key growth regions. By 2030, the number of number of passenger journeys that will start or terminate in the Asia Pacific region will increase by 1.79 billion (a 4.9 per cent rise).

In Dubai alone, Griffiths said that the aviation industry is expected to contribute $88.1 billion to the economy by 2030, and account for 45 per cent of the emirate’s gross domestic product. The figure is an increase from the $26.7 billion in GDP contribution in 2013.

“We’re incredibly well-positioned in the world because two-thirds of the world’s population lives within an eight-hour flying time from Dubai, and one third lives within four hours, so we are massively globally-centric in terms of the ability to leverage traffic,” he said.

UAE: Dubai Airport Traffic Up 8 Pct In November

Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest by international traffic, experienced an 8.1 percent increase in passenger numbers in November.

Traffic rose to 6.01 million passengers from 5.57 million a year earlier, taking the total so far in 2015 to 70.96 million, up 10.9 percent.

The largest increase in passenger numbers came from the Indian subcontinent from where new flights were launched, while the most significant growth was driven by Eastern Europe and North America, the latter where Emirates added new destinations.

Air freight volumes rose 3.8 percent in the month to 218,323 tonnes. Some cargo operations have moved to Al Maktoum International -- Dubai World Central (DWC).

Dubai Airports chief executive Paul Griffiths said the airport had an average monthly traffic of nearly 6.5 million passengers.

"We are sure the seasonal peaks that we experienced in December will help round off the year with an impressive annual figure," he said.

UAE: Emirates' New Flight Training Academy To Target More Female Pilots

Major Mariam Al Mansouri from Abu Dhabi

Major Mariam Al Mansouri from Abu Dhabi made headlines in 2014 as the first female pilot to lead strikes against Daesh in Syria.

Emirates will use the new Flight Training Academy it is building in Dubai World Central (DWC) to increase the number of female Emirati pilots employed by the airline.

Emirates is building its own pilot training centre next to its future hub at Al Maktoum International, which it hopes will lessen its reliance or hiring pilots from other airlines or foreign training schools.

“This academy will really fulfil our future demands,” Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer, told Gulf News in an interview on Monday at the Dubai Airshow.

It is also being developed so that Emirates will “have control over the quality and type of training” that is provided to its pilots, he said.

The training centre will see through between 300 to 400 cadets a year. Cadet places at the academy will at first only be offered to Emiratis, who will be provided with a full scholarship by Emirates that includes a salary and accommodation.

But Al Redha said it has been challenging in hiring female Emirati pilots, a position that is globally dominated by men.

Al Redha said the airline does hire “some female Emirati and some female non-Emirati” pilots but that in conservative Gulf the job previously been seen as for men.

More pilots needed

He said this is changing, and expects that the training academy and offer to work for Emirates will increase the number of female and male Emiratis at the airline.

“We’re seeing more interest from female [Emiratis] compared to previous years,” he said.

A spokesperson ahead of Monday’s interview declined to say what the gender breakdown was but did say it has 4,121 pilots from 97 different countries.

But Emirates will need a lot more. The airline has 241 all wide-body aircraft in its fleet today and a further 267 on order.

The training academy will start teaching classes in the third quarter next year when part of the site opens, Al Redha said, with an initial batch of 100 cadets.

The cadets will start flying in the second half of 2017 and graduate by the end of 2019.

Al Redha said there are plans to turn the training academy into a commercial business by offering the programme to other airlines and companies.

Last week, Emirates announced it is buying 22 single-piston engine Cirrus SR22’s and 5 twin-jet Embraer Phenom 100E aircraft for the academy, valued at $39 million at list prices.

Al Redha said the airline could purchase an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737, both single-aisle aircraft and neither of which are operated by Emirates, for the academy but ruled out buying any wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 777.