The Arabian Gulf and the United Arab Emirates are leading regions for the development of global air transport and the Dubai Airshow 2019 is an opportunity to remember it. Airbus forecasts this should further increase in the coming years. According to the “2019 Global Market Forecast” of the European manufacturer presented at the Dubai Airshow 2019, Airbus anticipates a virtual tripling of aircraft need for the operators’ fleets of the region up to 1,730 aircraft in 2038 (against 630 currently). This includes 750 single-aisle aircraft such as the Airbus A320 or A321, and 980 medium or wide-body aircraft such as the A330neo or Airbus A350, only for the Emirates region. In this region, passenger traffic is expected to grow by 5.8% per year over the next 20 years.

More generally, in the Middle East region, passenger air traffic is expected to increase by 5.6% per year, well above the annual growth rate of 4.3% per year. Over the same period, cargo traffic is expected to grow by 3.6% in line with the expected growth worldwide. This should require a fleet contribution of 3,200 aircraft on a total fleet (passenger and cargo) which is expected to require a total of 39,210 aircraft within 20 years. Today, five megacities highly dependent on air transport are located in the Middle East, two of which, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, are in the UAE. This number is expected to rise to 11 in the next 20 years, including cities such as Muscat and Kuwait City.