Emirates commits $12 billion to new Al Maktoum International

Emirates will invest up to $12 billion in Al Maktoum International as part of the Dubai government’s $35 billion redevelopment of the site, which is slated to replace DXB as the emirate’s main aviation hub by 2032.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, Chairman and CEO of Emirates Group, said total spending will far exceed the headline figure.

He said Emirates plans to finance its share of the investment through a combination of cash reserves and new debt.

Moreover, U.K. Export Finance, the government-backed export credit agency, announced during the Dubai Airshow that it will invest $3.5 billion to support the participation of the U.K. businesses in the new airport. 

Qatar’s Hamad International Airport to boost capacity by 20%

Doha’s Hamad International Airport, the second busiest in the region, plans to increase its annual capacity by nearly 20% using the existing infrastructure.

The strategy outlined by Chief Operating Office Hamad Al-Khater contrasts with its rival Dubai International Airport, which is spending $35 billion on a new terminal to handle 260 million passengers.

“We believe we can even fit 75 to 77 million passengers within the current footprint of the airport,” Al-Khater told Bloomberg. “It needs a lot of work, a lot of optimization, but that is our primary goal.”

Last year, Doha’s airport handled some 53 million passengers, making it the tenth busiest airport in the world by international traffic, ahead of Bangkok, Madrid and Munich.

Kuwait Airways break-even goal hit by delays, Mideast tensions

Delivery delays from Airbus and regional geopolitical instability are hampering Kuwait Airways’ efforts to break even and attract more passengers.

Chairman Abdulmohsen Alfagaan told Reuters that the carrier currently operates 27 aircraft, down from a plan of 33 for 2024, and expects to reach only 30 by year-end, with full deliveries delayed until 2027.

Kuwait Airways will not be able to reach its goal of 5.5 million passengers this year, up from 4 million in 2024.

Alfagaan said the company’s 2025 break-even target is at risk.

Emirates Group launches global hiring campaign to fill 17,300 jobs

Emirates Group has launched a global talent drive to support expansion, with plans to hire 17,300 people across 350 different roles this year.

Recruits are being sought across Emirates airline and the dnata ground-handling unit, from cabin crew, pilots and engineers to IT, human resources and finance roles.

The company, which already has a 121,000-strong workforce, will host open days and other recruitment events across 150 cities including the UAE, The National reports.

Emirates airline posted its third consecutive year of record profits last year, with a post-tax profit of AED19.1billion ($5.2 billion) for the year ended in March.

It paid out a generous 22-week bonus to eligible employees following the result.

Egypt to open 11 key airports to private sector investment

Egypt is preparing to open up the operations of 11 major airports to private investment, aiming to modernize the country’s aviation infrastructure and reach its goal of attracting 30 million tourists annually.

Backed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corp., the plan focuses on boosting efficiency and service standards while keeping state ownership intact.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi reviewed the strategy over the weekend, endorsing a timeline that begins with offering Hurghada airport on the Red Sea to the private sector by the end of 2025.

The initiative is set to be finalized next summer.

Saudis sign deals for over 100 planes as Paris Air Show opens

AviLease has signed a deal for up to 77 Airbus planes, announced as the Paris Air Show opened at Le Bourget on Monday.

The global aircraft lessor backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund signed up for an initial 30 A320 Neo jets and 10 A350F freighters, which could increase to 55 A320 Neos and 22 A350Fs.

Riyadh Air, Saudi’s new national carrier, also backed by the sovereign wealth fund,  announced an order of 25 A350-1000 aircraft at the event on Monday.

Meanwhile, Royal Air Maroc is nearing a major fleet renewal deal with Boeing as it moves to quadruple its fleet by 3030 ahead of co-hosting the World Cup.

The deal could include more than 70  787s and 737 jets, Reuters reports. The airline is also planning a smaller order for 20 Airbus A220s, its first Airbus deal in nearly 25 years.

The Paris Air Show opened against a somber backdrop following last week’s Air India crash and disruptions caused by rising tensions between Israel and Iran.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Commercial Airplanes chief Stephanie Pope have cancelled their trip to Paris, with Boeing scaling back its presence to focus on the India crash probe.

Boeing’s branding remained highly visible at the show, including a gleaming Riyadh Air 787 parked behind its chalet at Le Bourget, Reuters reported.

Airline execs descend on Dubai for IATA annual meeting

Over 1,500 airline executives will descend on Dubai, the world’s busiest international travel hub, this weekend, for the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association.

The industry trade organization, which represents more than 300 airlines and over 80% of global air traffic, expects to grapple with airline chiefs’ biggest challenges over the three-day gathering.

At the top of the agenda are aircraft shortages, geopolitical tensions and carbon reduction strategies as declining airfares spell out a muted outlook for carriers.

The 80th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit, hosted by Emirates Airline, will run from Sunday, June 2 through Tuesday, June 4, and is for the first time taking place in the UAE.

Expected to attend are CEOs including Vanessa Hudson of Qantas; Tim Clark of Emirates Airline; Scott Kirby, of United Airlines and Shai Weiss of Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Aviation is a linchpin of Dubai’s economic ambitions: the industry contributed 27% to the emirate’s GDP and supported $37 billion in gross value added in 2023.

That is projected to increase to $53 billion in 2030, in line with Dubai’s growth forecast, according to Oxford Economics. 

The Weekly Circuit: Dubai Airshow + Saudi Arabia’s super-fast supercomputer

👋 Hello from the Middle East!

Checkbooks are out as the blockbuster Dubai Airshow is underway this week. One of the world’s biggest events on the aviation calendar, the biennial Dubai exhibition has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a smaller trade show in 1989 with 200 exhibitors and 25 aircraft. This 18th edition has seen over 100,000 attendees flock to a purpose-built site on the outskirts of Dubai with two more days to go.

The Dubai government is planning to sell a 25% stake in Dubai Taxi Co. as it revives a privatization push first announced two years ago. The sale on the local exchange, set to be priced on Nov. 21, could raise up to $300 million, Bloomberg reports. The overall outlook for public markets in the Gulf is largely optimistic, according to a recent report from EY, citing a large pipeline of planned IPOs – particularly on the Saudi Tadawul exchange – going into 2024. However, the audit firm noted a risk of ongoing geopolitical challenges, which are “adversely [impacting] investor sentiment.”

Saudi Arabia’s supercomputer Shaheen III was named the fastest in the Middle East by TOP500, a German group that tracks the computing power of systems worldwide. Developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Shaheen III is housed at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Its processing power exceeds that of 500,000 latest-generation MacBook Pros operating simultaneously. According to Tony Chan, president of KAUST, the plan is to use the supercomputer to support the university’s research in areas like alternative fuels and carbon sequestration.

Family investment offices will be a prominent feature during Abu Dhabi Finance Week at the end of this month. More than 300 leaders of the industry and government officials from 17 countries are expected to participate in the Nov. 28 inaugural International Family Office Congress, according to a statement. Some 80% of the UAE’s private sector are family businesses and the global family office industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the conference organizers said.

Masdar, the UAE’s sustainable energy company, is considering acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe while looking for prospective partners in China. COO Abdulaziz Alobaidli discussed the company’s expansion plans with The National and said the changes would be “transformative.” In advance of hosting the U.N.’s COP28 environmental conference in two weeks, the UAE government publicized a set of principles on the “minimum standards for the management of climate-related financial risks for all financial sector entities” operating in the country.

Welcome to The Weekly Circuit. Read on for the stories, deals and players driving the news across the MENA business landscape. Please send comments and story tips to [email protected].

DUBAI AIRSHOW

UAE stages aviation extravaganza, overcoming rivals and regional tension

Dubai’s aviation industry shrugged off new regional rivals and emerging security concerns in the Middle East to stage this week’s event. Organizers tallied more than $50 billion in new aircraft orders from Boeing, Dubai raised its forecast for traffic through its world-leading airport and IPO prospects for  flag carrier Emirates generated substantial buzz, The Circuit’s Kelsey Warner reports. 

Big numbers: Dubai Airports announced it is expecting record-breaking numbers to continue in the fourth quarter and into 2024 with annual passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB) reaching  reach 86.8 million – surpassing 2019. “We’re thrilled but not entirely surprised that DXB is all set to surpass the pre-pandemic milestone well ahead of our initial projections by almost a year,” Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, said in a statement.

Top traffic: India was DXB’s top country destination in terms of traffic volume with 8.9 million passengers in the first nine months of the year, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.8 million passengers and the UK with 4.4 million. 

Mega-deals: Shares of Boeing popped on the New York Stock Exchange, up 4% on Monday, and have stayed buoyant as government-owned Emirates and sister airline flydubai secured 125 Boeing wide-body jets at the opening of the airshow, leading a week of mega-deals in commercial and defense aviation that typically sees the biggest agreements inked in the first two days.

Click here to read the full story.

Share

In a first, Israel participates in Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi

In another debut for Israel stemming from the Abraham Accords, the country’s leading aviation manufacturer — Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) — participated in a major industry conference last week in the United Arab Emirates.

The three-day Global Aerospace Summit, held at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi and hosted by the Mubadala Investment Company, covered topics ranging from aviation and space to cybersecurity and innovation. It brought together more than 1,000 senior executives from the aerospace and defense sectors in countries around the world that are eager to foster global collaboration and partnerships.

The presence of IAI, which produces aerial and aeronautic systems for both military and civilian use, broke new ground for Israel nearly two years after it signed normalization agreements with the UAE and several other Arab nations.

“What is important is that we are in the UAE and this summit is a semi-historical event for us because we are attending it for the first time ever,” Sharon Biton, IAI’s vice president of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, told The Circuit.

Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi (Courtesy)

The summit, now in its sixth edition, also welcomed 120 expert speakers that engaged the audience with more than 30 hours of panel discussions and workshops aiming to help shape the future of the industry. 

IAI was one of the sponsors for the Global Aerospace Summit. With 15,000 employees, including 6,000 engineers, the company, according to Biton, is the largest high-tech firm in the Middle East. A leader in both the defense and commercial markets delivering state-of-the-art technologies in air, space, naval, cyber and homeland defense, IAI is fully owned by the Israeli government. It designs, produces, develops and maintains civil aircraft, drones, fighter aircraft, missile, avionics and space-based systems. 

In 2021, IAI reported annual sales of approximately $4.5 billion with an order backlog of $13.4 billion. 

“The UAE is a hub for the Arab world in general, and the Abraham Accords gave us a big boost so that we as Israelis are now able to come to all kinds of places [in the UAE] and we get licenses to market in all kinds of places,” Biton said. “The UAE as a business hub symbolizes success for the region.”

Since Israel signed the Abraham Accords at the White House in September 2020 with the UAE and Bahrain, it has rewritten the rules of Middle East business after being shunned by most of the Arab world following its establishment in 1948. Among other significant developments in the past two years have been the first direct flights to the Gulf states from Israel and invitations for Israel to participate in the Dubai Expo and the World Cup soccer championship matches in Qatar later this year.

While IAI was the only Israeli company with a physical booth at the summit, several other Israeli individuals from the industry were present and participated in various panels, including one on “Cybersecurity in the Aerospace Sector,” which examined the most significant cyber security challenges facing the aerospace sector. It was led by Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the head of cyber security for the UAE government, with speakers including Yigal Unna, former director general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, and IAI’s Esti Peshin, the company’s vice president and general manager of its cyber division. 

In the talk, Peshin highlighted the need for cyber security solutions for commercial aviation.

In a panel on R&D investments, Eytan Eshel, IAI’s chief technology officer, stressed the company’s work as a bridge.  “IAI’s Innovation Center is a prime example of bringing together startups and the defense ecosystem to develop new, unique solutions,” he said. “We invest in the future by investing in innovation.”

Jacob Rozmann, vice president and general manager of Lahav Aerostructures in IAI’s Aviation Group, emphasized the importance of forging regional ties between Israel and the region., “Regional cooperation for transforming supply chains will result in quicker shipment, lower costs and a stronger industry network,” Rozmann said.

Global Aerospace Summit in Abu Dhabi (Courtesy)

Irit Fried, who is in charge of education programming in IAI’s Space Division, said teaching young people about opportunities beyond earth’s orbit is critical. “Our mentorship programs share knowledge and passion with students and inspire future commitment to space.” 

Over the last few years, IAI has expanded its business activities in the UAE. In November 2021, Abu Dhabi-based EDGE, the region’s leading technology company for defense, signed a memorandum of understanding with IAI during a ceremony at the 2021 Dubai Airshow to establish a maintenance center for a selection of IAI’s systems in the UAE. 

“This summit is about meeting people,” Biton said, “and it is about bringing into action our slogan, which states ‘Together we have a Brighter Future.’ We are aiming for a mutual future that must be brighter and that must talk about not only providing Israel with solutions but also cooperation.”

The summit, added Biton, was “a tremendous success with lots of traffic of very important people that led to very important meetings, which led to interesting opportunities. We felt a warm welcome from the Emiratis as individuals representing IAI and as ambassadors of the State of Israel — emotionally and business-wise.”