|
The saga of the Middle East Aviation is a never-ending story of the region's quest to build its respective airlines and consequently its aviation, based on its economy rather than merely on a business enterprise.
One must clearly understand the logic behind such 'national business enterprise.' While Airlines elsewhere in the world are based on private commercial enterprise and look for profits to maintain a healthy balance sheet in the near future, most Airlines in the Middle East are primarily dominated by national interest and operate almost as part of their respective economic plan on a long term basis.
This is evident from the fall-outs of the evils of the events of September 11, 2001. The aftermath was such that the Airlines elsewhere in the world were in a near state of panic and took drastic steps to reduce cost. The clerks at the counters of the Airlines, saw the queues dwindle and the ever-smiling Air Hostess looked at the increasingly empty seats. But cargo almost held its position with only a marginal drop. In any case, all Airlines take advantage of the belly cargo capacity availability in a passenger aircraft. The number of flights did not drop drastically and cargo tonnage remained almost the same, but the number of passengers did take a dive. All said and done, the last two years have been a roller-coaster ride for the aviation industry worldwide. Some Airlines are still on the downwards slop, others are well and truly on the ascend.
However, the Middle East scenario was a bit different. The Airlines in the Middle East did feel the sting, but while some were able to adjust to the situation, others made some practical
|
|
|
management decision and recovered. Says a Chief Executive of a major Cargo Airline based in Dubai, "Acts of terrorism, wars, epidemics, new security measures and swooping oil prices, all have a dramatic and lasting effect on business plans of Airlines worldwide. However, in the Middle East, most Airlines have been able to overcome this unwelcome effect of the business."
"We have to learn to react dramatically in this very volatile business. To survive, airlines are having to make adjustments at short notice," he added. Strange as it may sound, cargo wise in the Middle East, there was a growth, this was mainly due to the infrastructure development in the region.
After the September 11 catastrophe in 2001, the airlines worldwide were running helter-shelter to stay afloat. At this time, it seemed that the Aviation industry as a whole suddenly were confronted with a 'black hole' to which they were being sucked in, and just about everything had to be done to Avoid being pulled into a frightful abyss, including putting expansion plan on hold with no hope of being revived in the near future.
But what about the Airlines in the Middle East? What about their expansion plans? Did they also follow the trend else where in the world? No! Certainly not Dubai's Emirates Airline. Instead, there was a major contract for aircraft from Emirates at the Dubai Air Show that followed in December that year - a long-term plan to invest up to US $15 billion in new aircraft over the next nine years was unveiled.
These orders for new aircraft were part of a carefully planned strategy, reflecting the vision to develop Dubai to attract annually, 16 million visitors by 2010. The
|
decision was part and parcel of its growth, its vaulting ambitions. Emirates Airlines dared and others followed.
All the major Airlines in the Middle East also drew up plans to spread their wings and fly to more destinations and to further lands.
That was about two years ago. But what about now? How does things stand today?
If one takes a general global view, one can see some issues have been sidelined. The plight of the global aviation industry after September 11 together with Iraq war and the recent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), coupled with the global economic downturn, is still far from a healthy state.
But as it happened in the past, it happened again, Emirates Airline has turned the gloom into an optimistic future. Thus a depressed aviation industry found a bounce with the Emirates' biggest order in civil aviation history, worth US$19 billion (approx. AED70 billion) at the Paris Air Show held on 16th June, this year.
Emirates confirmed purchase orders for 21 more Airbus A380-800s and Leasing orders for two A380-800s. The additional 23 aircraft bring Emirates total order for the giant double-deck jetliner to 45, the most ordered by any airline.
At the same time, Emirates announced operating lease orders for 26 Boeing 777-300Ers, 14 from General Electric Capital Aviation Services and 12 from the International lease Finance Corporation and powered by General Electric GE90-115B engines.
The aircraft will provide much-needed extra capacity on existing routes and help it continue to expand its network, which
|
Next