Arab airlines to double fleet strength in the next 25 years

Business Monday 05/December/2016 18:23 PM
By: Times News Service
Arab airlines to double fleet strength in the next 25 years

Dead Sea/Amman: Arab airlines are expected to double its fleet strength within the next two-and-a-half decades from its present strength of 1,300 aircraft to support a robust growth in passenger traffic in the region, according to a senior official of a leading budget airline in the Gulf.
Presently, Arab carriers have a combined fleet strength of 1,300 planes and “we expect it to double in the next twenty-five years,” said Abdel Al Ali, group chief executive officer of Air Arabia. He was addressing the Arab Aviation Summit at Dead Sea, Jordan, here on Monday.
Ali added that the general public in the Middle East and Arab region will continue to travel and the budget airlines are playing an important role in strengthening the traffic.
“We are expecting another 100 planes in the next 12-18 months (to join the fleet of Arab airlines). However, 60 to 70 aircraft in the region will be withdrawn from service. So the net increase will be 30 to 40 new aircraft,” Abdel Wahab Teffaha, secretary general of Arab Air Carriers’ Organisation, told Times of Oman, in an interview.
196m passengers
Teffaha added that the Arab airlines have carried 196 million passengers and airports in the region have handled 325 million passengers last year, which indicates a 5.8 per cent growth in passenger traffic. “However, we are expecting a little slowdown in passenger traffic growth this year at 4-5 per cent,” added Teffaha.
In 2017, there will not be a slowdown in growth. The factors that have affected the passenger traffic growth this year include slowdown in economic growth due to a drop in oil prices, continuation of slack growth in Europe and China and instability in some Arab countries, including Syria, Libya and Iraq. “Still, we have posted the maximum growth in any region.”
Ali of Air Arabia said that the aviation industry in Arab region could absorb 20,000-25,000 local pilots now (by replacing overseas pilots). “But it needs a lot of work to train them.”
Since unemployment is a major challenge faced by Arab countries, efforts are needed to train pilots and engineers required by aviation industry in the region. “We still import pilots and engineers.”
Ali also noted that the travel, tourism and aviation sectors create ample job opportunities and drive economic growth. “For several countries, tourism is the best hard currency income,” added Ali.
He said that the aviation industry has grown 100 per cent in the last twenty years in the Arab region. “It is the only region where we have achieved a double digit growth in passenger traffic for the last twenty-five years.”
Ali said that aviation industry has a huge growth potential within the region. “The big picture is that we have 350 million people (in the Arab region) as a single market. If only 1 per cent of this population travel, there is a big market for us.”
The Air Arabia chief also said that the countries/cities that have opened up their aviation sector by following open-sky policies have gained immensely in creating jobs and achieving faster economic growth, which include Barcelona, Singapore and Dubai.
The Arab Aviation Summit was held under the patronage of Lina Annab, Minister of Tourism and Antiques, Jordan, with the theme ‘Linking Cultures, Driving Economies.’ Apart from Annab, top-level aviation and tourism officials who attended the meeting include Dr. Bandar Fahad Al Fehaid, president, Arab Tourism Organisation of the Arab League and Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, chief executive officer, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority.
In addition, a number of prominent industry figures joined the summit to discuss trends that have influenced the sector, and propose ways for better collaboration to propel aviation and tourism towards sustained growth.