The aviation industry seems to have moved past the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with deals worth Dh126 billion being announced on Day 1 of the Dubai Airshow 2021.
On Sunday, this year’s biggest-ever aerospace event commenced at the Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai World Central, yesterday. The airshow will run until Thursday, and will have more than 1,200 exhibitors from 148 countries displaying over 160 aircraft.
On the first day of the event, industry executives spoke about the future of aviation and the importance of gender equality in the $400 billion (Dh1.46 trillion) sector. Even though the pandemic slowed down deal-making in the airline space, Wizz Air-owner Indigo Partners announced a massive order for 255 Airbus A321 aircraft at a list price of $33 billion.
Defence contracts
Deals were not limited to airlines alone. UAE’s Ministry of Defence announced the conclusion of 5 deals worth Dh5.24 billion with local and international companies.
GAL, a subsidiary of UAE defence technology entity EDGE, was awarded a Dh11 billion performance-based logistics (PBL) contract to supply the UAE Air Force and Air Defence (AFAD) with maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and specialised support services.
Meanwhile, Israel participated in the Dubai Airshow for the first time, a year after the Abraham Accords were signed between the UAE and Israel.
European plane-maker Airbus predicted that the aviation industry would require around 39,000 aircraft in the next 20 years. “We’re now towards the end of 2021 and we project the corridor of recovery in global worldwide traffic, that sees us back to pre-Covid levels, sometime between 2023 and 2025,” said Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International, during a media briefing ahead of the Dubai Airshow.
Freight market competition
In the meantime, competition in the freight market is heating up with Boeing in discussions to sell a cargo version of its future 777X jet. European rival Airbus is also expecting to strike an A350 freighter deal.
Dubai World Central is set to reopen to passengers in May 2022, two years after the coronavirus pandemic forced the city to suspend operations at its second airport.
“We’ve got to do some work on the runway at Dubai International Airport and with the reduction in capacity we’ll start to move operations back to DWC,” chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said at the airshow on Sunday. “But it’s really determined by the recovery of traffic overall.”
DWC will see airlines including Wizz Air, some FlyDubai operations and a few Russian airlines return, though Emirates
will operate passenger flights solely out of the main Dubai International Airport for the foreseeable future.
Griffiths said he is optimistic the airline industry will recover by the start of 2025. “I’m hoping that might be a fairly conservative estimate,” he said. “We may well see a rather rapid recovery if the last few weeks are anything to go by.”
To prepare for higher tourist arrivals, concourse A at Dubai International is set to reopen on November 24, bringing the airport to full operation.
Griffiths has previously said that easing Covid-19 restrictions will boost travel through one of the world’s busiest hubs, and international visitor numbers may more than double next year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Finance World staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
