Aviation Business - Feb 2010

BUSINESSTHE MAGAZINE FOR AVIATION EXECUTIVES IN THE MIDDLE EAST | FEBRUARY 2010

TOP 10 TRIPSTOP 10 TRIPS | READER’S LET TERS READER’S LET TERS | MOVERS & SHAKERS MOVERS & SHAKERS | REGIONAL NEWS REGIONAL NEWS

We’ve only just begun

Dubai Duty Free has more growth plans

Meetingtravel needsDoes your airline’s website off er a ‘shopping experience?’

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MRO MIDDLE EASTPiecing together the hot topics in the maintenance market

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FEBRUARY 2010VOLUME 09ISSUE 02 CONTENTS

Visitors to Airport Expo this month are in for a double treat as the ever-popular MRO Middle East show is co-located with Aircraft Interiors Miiddle East. Make the most of your time at these two events by turning to our preview piece in this month’s issue. Having two events held at the same time may be convenient, but it means you will have double the exhibitors to visit. Also, our coverage provides information on the upcoming Aerospace & Defence Training show, which will be held in March.

21 MRO & AIME EVENTS

There are more new faces at Etihad Airways; Royal Jet drafts in a fi nancial specialist; Vistajet expands its team; and Amadeus makes a number of changes to its top tier of management.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Amadeus’ Denis Lacroix asks ‘how is technology reinventing the travel shopping experience on airline websites?’

30 ASK THE EXPERT

On the back of Boeing’s number crunching, the plane manufacturer has revealed its delivery target fi gures and its full-year profi ts, but we fi nd out what exactly it is that continues to make the company’s CEO continue to smile, despite 2009 being a year of order cancellations and dwindling profi ts – not just for Boeing but for the aviation supply chain as a whole.

JIM MCNERNEY

From humble beginnings at Shannon airport in Ireland, Colm McLoughlin has risen to become the head of the most profi table airport retail operation in the world. After almost three decades at Dubai Duty Free, he tells us the secrets to his success and explains why he believes the growth of the money-making – and pioneering – Dubai brand is only just getting started.

COLM MCLOUGHLIN

21

26

33

The delivery results are in for Boeing and Airbus, with impressive results, but both manufacturers remain cautious for 2010. Meanwhile, Gulf Air’s fi nances are called into question and Jazeera Airways has been forced to downsize its route network. Staying with airlines, Qatar Airways is ploughing ahead with its biofuel project; Etihad has launched its much-hyped new cabin product and business is looking up for Jet Airways.

06 REGIONAL NEWS

February 2010

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February 2010

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BUSINESS

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10 events that shaped the Gulf’s aviation industryIf you look around and see the fi gure heads of all the other airlines in the Gulf, like Emirates, Air Arabia, Qatar, Etihad, Bahrain Air, Oman Air and Sama, you will fi nd they are all ex Gulf Air. The proud airline/university has produced all of them and made it possible for the achievements of today’s Gulf aviation industry.Mohammed, undisclosed location

Boeing 787 takes its fi rst fl ightReally … many thanks for the people who make these airplanes and who make our life of travelling easier and more enjoyable with the best of comfort.Fahad A A Almulhim, Saudi Arabia

Air Arabia eyes Belgium and LuxembourgGlad to see this airline growing so fast. I was a passenger of G9 when the airline started with only two A320s based in Sharjah about fi ve years back.Hassana Aly, Cairo

Aaabar plans 2 hour fl ight from Abu Dhabi to LAThis sounds fantastic, but based on what technic? Ramjet?Stefan, Germany

This is really a great advance, but can they provide more details, such as launching system, aircraft type, where the fl ight is going to take place in the atmosphere?Lightning, Romania

Gulf Air’s fi nances called into question by MPsThe parliament in Bahrain cannot

resist intervention into what is happening in the national airline [Gulf Air]. Facts and fi gures from within the airline that should be confi dential are regularly leaked to members of parliament. Perhaps the restructuring redundancies should start with those who leak information, and save the airline thousands of dinars.Bob, UAE

Business travel budgets bounce backTravel business budgets will see more abundance in 2010 for Middle East, Asia and Africa markets.Jojy Thomas, Dubai

Iranian plane fi re leaves 46 passengers injuredStop cutting corners in the name of cost cutting with audits and maintenance, blaming everything on pilot error. It’s time to wake up, especially on the older fl eet - take the Airworthiness Report seriously!Coral, Dubai

Airline refusal blamed for abandoned lionsMaximus Air Cargo offered to fl y the animals at cost using our Lockheed Hercules however, the animals had already been moved - if the owners want to send them to a sanctuary or free them we are available in the future ... www.maximus.aero or [email protected] Manser, Abu Dhabi

Sometimes schedule carriers just do not have the right experienced personal to handle such animals. We are doing air transports with all kinds of animals, including rhinos, elephants, etc.R. Stawinoga, Frankfurt, MD of RSC

Got an opinion? Have your say at...

04

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DATA

Boeing recorded 481 commercial airplane deliveries in 2009, matching the company guidance of 480-485 airplanes.

The backlog of aircraft to be delivered by Boeing Commercial Airplanes remains at 3375.

But the US plane manufacturer regis-tered only 263 gross and 142 net commer-cial orders for the year as air travel and freight declined and carriers’ worldwide experienced severe economic challenges.

The global recession forced many carri-ers to re-evaluate their near- and medium-term fl eet requirements, resulting in Boe-ing receiving 59 cancellations of its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Amid ongoing delays, the 787 did man-age to complete its fi rst test fl ight before the end of last year however, with fi rst deliver-ies of the fuel effi cient aircraft – most likely destined for Qatar Airways – scheduled for September 2010.

The 747-8 Freighter is slated for fi rst fl ight early this year with fi rst delivery planned for fourth-quarter 2010, while delivery of the 747-8 Intercontinental pas-senger airplane is planned for the fourth-quarter of 2011.

Boeing achieves 2009 delivery targetBut the airplane manufacturer must work on restoring its customers’ faith, says analyst

FIGURESBOEING’S ORDERS, DELIVERIES AND BACKLOG AT THE END OF 2009:737 – 197 gross orders; 178 net orders; 372 deliveries; 2076 backlog units777 – 30 gross orders; 19 net orders; 88 deliveries; 281 backlog units747 – 5 gross orders; 2 net orders; 8 deliveries; 108 backlog units767 – 7 gross orders; 2 net orders; 13 deliveries; 59 backlog units787 – 24 gross orders; -59 net orders; N/A; 851 backlog units

Boeing Commercial Airplanes presi-dent and chief executive offi cer Jim Al-baugh, said 2009 had not been without its challenges, “but it also was a year of excit-ing achievements for our company and our industry. With signs of economic recovery emerging in 2010, we look forward to better days ahead.”

When evaluating Boeing’s performance throughout 2009, FBE Aerospace chief analyst Saj Ahmad said it could not be classed as singularly as either a failure or an outright success.

“While Boeing reaffi rmed its intention to deliver between 480-485 jets in the year, it still encountered a massive headache in the fi fth major delay to the 787 Dreamliner which failed to fl y at the end of June 2009.

“Despite that, the 787 did fl y and the challenge now is to get the remaining 35% of the airplane certifi ed.”

Ahmad added that 2009 will be a year that Boeing looks back on as a huge learning exercise.

“Aside from the cancelled 787 orders, its backlog has held up well and has grown. Boeing will need to take the momentum from the successes at the end of

he 787 did fl y and the get the remaining 35% fied.”at 2009 will be ooks back on

xercise.e cancelled og has held wn. Boeing momentum t the end of

the year and translate those into deliveries and revenue.

“With huge expenditure coming up on the 747-8 Intercontinental, 787-9,

the purchase of Global Aero-nautica and a second fi nal

assembly line in South Carolina, Boeing has its work cut out and the next few years will be

just as diffi cult. The focus has to be on execution and deliv-ery. Without those,

Boeing will struggle to restore its custom-

ers’ faith.”

The 787 took to the skies in December, despite ongoing production delays

Jim Albaugh said 2009 had

not been without

its challenges

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06 REGIONAL NEWS


BUSINESS

Like Boeing, Airbus managed to achieve its deliveries target within guidance range, but the European plane manufacturer is being warned to expect a diffi cult year ahead.

To make way for new cus-tomers such as Turkish Air-lines (see page 7), Airbus is expected to adjust downward the production rate of its A320 aircraft this year.

Not only that, the key num-bers at parent company, EADS showed that revenue actually declined by almost 4% year-on-year, so that while deliver-ies were up to a record high,

Airbus hits 2009 goals, but sees diffi cult 2010

STRATEGY

Jazeera Airways has an-nounced a number of can-celled and postponed services on its network, refl ecting the diffi cult current market con-ditions in the region.

From December 13, servic-es from Kuwait to Hurghada in Egypt ceased operation and will not be reinstated un-til June 2, 2010. This will now operate as a seasonal summer route. However, some week-end fl ights to Hurghada will be operational in early 2010 during the holiday periods. In addition, fl ights to Sana’a will

Jazeera Airways downsizes its route network

costs attached to the increased production rate did not yield much in the way of savings. In fact, costs actually rose, said FBE Aerospace chief analyst Saj Ahmad.

”Airbus’ near-term chal-lenge will be a three-pronged approach. First is the January 31 meeting to decide whether the A400M lives or dies. The second is the ever-changing delivery targets on the loss-making A380 and fi nally the push to get the A350XWB family toward the 2013 service entry date.

”In 2010 and 2011, R&D on the A350XWB will peak,

further pressurising EADS’ bottom line. The €8 billion (US$11.6 billion) EADS cash nest is under threat if fund-ing for the A400M is pulled and the programme scrapped as the company would have to spend billions to compen-sate its customers. The A380 is saddled with engineering and supply chain anomalies and any prospect of profi tability evaporated long ago.

“Throw into the mix lower deliveries in FY10 and rev-enue will be under severe pres-sure at a time when it is most needed to shore up the vast expenses that the company has yet to incur. The low-margin profi tability of the A320 fam-ily cannot carry this burden alone and with a rate cut all but inevitable, the challenges will indeed be diffi cult.”

Ahmad went on to say that the A330 had become some-what of a saviour for Airbus and added that the news of Airbus’ plans to double its de-liveries of the A380 this year was “nothing short of miracu-lous if it happens.”

now operate via Bahrain, as of January 3.

Furthermore, the airline announced that services be-tween Kuwait and Tehran and between Dubai and Bah-rain will cease to operate on January 3, 2010 as well.

Not only that, the serv-ice from Kuwait to Mumbai has been cancelled, while the route from Kuwait to Lata-kia, originally scheduled for launch on December 15, has been postponed.

“We are continually re-viewing our services to en-sure ongoing profi tability in

BUSINESS

Bahraini MPs demanded an-swers to the state of the nation-al carrier Gulf Air’s fi nances in January, accusing it of delays costing millions of dinars. Ministers accused the airline of “weak action” to collect hun-dreds of thousands of dinars owed to it by travel agents in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. The carrier’s fi nancial posi-tion has also been made sig-nifi cantly worse by its failure to sell two Boeing 767s at the right time, costing it BD23.5 million (US$62.3 million), MPs told Gulf Daily News. “The action Gulf Air has taken to collect its money and ensure that it doesn’t get lost or squandered is weak,” chair-man of the fi nancial and eco-nomic affairs committee Ab-duljalil Khalil, told the paper.

Gulf Air’s fi nances called into question

a tough trading environment, while providing our guests with quality and choice. Mak-ing the changes to our net-work gives us the opportunity to operate more frequencies to other destinations or to launch new routes in line with demand,” commented Jazeera Airways CEO Stefan Pichler.

On a positive note, the air-line took delivery of its newest Airbus A320 last month. The arrival of the new aircraft brings the airline’s total fl eet size to 11, with a further 29 aircraft to be delivered over the next few years.

Airbus’ plans to double deliveries of its A380 have been described as ‘miraculous’

Jazeera Airways CEO Stefan Pichler

REGIONAL NEWS 07

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Turkish Airlines buys 30 Airbus A320sFLEET

Turkish Airlines will add 30 air-planes from Airbus to its fl eet as part of its expansion plans.

The airline has placed 20 defi nite orders for the A320 air-craft, while the remaining 10 orders are optional.

Turkey’s fl ag carrier aims to acquire a total of 105 new air-craft over the coming few years.

Some 14 A321-200 jets and six A319 -100 jets will be de-

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TECHNOLOGY

Qatar Airways will work with Airbus in the development of sustainable bio jet fuel that will also look into ways for production and supply.

The world fi rst initiative will also harness the expe-rience of Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) and Qatar Petroleum and follows Qatar Airways fi rst commer-cial fl ight powered by a Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) fuel blend last October, which proved to be a signifi cant development in the use.

The airline’s CEO Akbar Al Baker, said: “Building on the experience and success of the GTL Consortium, we now move to the next phase of al-ternative fuels.”

Qatar and Airbus in biofuel project

livered to Turkish Airlines be-tween 2011 and 2012. The board of directors has also placed an order for purchase of ten A319/A321 planes, all with options, to be procured in the year 2013.

The number of single aisle jets in the fl eet of Turkish Air-lines will increase to 126 and the number of twin aisle aircraft will rise to 36 between 2010 and 2012, taking the total number of aircraft to168.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker

08 REGIONAL NEWS


FLEET

Etihad Airways has taken de-livery of its fi rst Airbus A330-300, confi gured with the air-line’s new fi rst, business and economy cabin product.

The aircraft is the fi rst of fi ve new A330-300s the Abu Dhabi-based airline will take delivery of during the next two years.

It carries 12 passengers in fi rst class, 40 passengers in busi-ness class and 151 passengers in economy class.

Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan, said: “The delivery of a new aircraft is a great moment for an airline but the new A330-300 is special for Etihad because it is the fi rst time our customers can experience our new product in all three cabins.

“Our fi rst class suite has been a huge success since its launch earlier in the year and we are sure the new business and econ-omy cabin product will be just as popular with our customers.”

Etihad Airways launches its new cabin product

DATA

Jet Airways has recorded growth of 53% in its domes-tic market in December 2009, when compared to the same period last year.

The Indian airlines’ all-economy services Jet Airways Konnect, which serves domes-tic routes only, and JetLite, which fl ies to a number of do-mestic destinations, as well as two international destinations, are thought to have provided the much-needed surge in pas-senger numbers.

In fact, JetLite posted a 23% growth in passenger traf-fi c at an average seat factor of 81.5% in December..

Meanwhile, international passenger traffi c also increased 28% during the abovemen-

Jet Airways’ domestic market soars

FLEET

Marking the fi rst commercial Airbus A380 into the King-dom of Saudi Arabia, Emir-ates will serve Jeddah four times weekly with the super-jumbo from this month.

Starting February 1, Jed-dah will be the eighth destina-tion to be added to the grow-ing list of gateways served by the A380 which include; Sydney, Auckland, Heathrow, Bangkok, Toronto, Seoul and since December 29, Paris.

Emirates senior vice presi-dent commercial operations Gulf, Middle East and Iran Ahmed Khoory said the air-craft deployment was signifi -cant as it was the airline’s fi rst Middle Eastern A380 desti-nation outside of Dubai. “The introduction of the highly ac-claimed A380 on the Jeddah route is a true refl ection of an increased demand for services in and out of the Kingdom.

Emirates brings fi rst superjumbo to KSA

“This service into Jeddah will mark Emirates’ fi rst Middle Eastern A380 des-tination outside of Dubai, a signifi cant milestone for both Emirates and Saudi Arabia.”

Khoory added that the route had remained busy. “Adding an A380 onto this perpetually busy route will signifi cantly increase our capacity; ensuring passengers have greater access to fl ights whilst enjoying the distinction of travelling on the world’s largest and most her-alded aircraft.”

The A380 service to Jed-dah will be the fi rst aircraft into the city to contain three-confi guration cabins.

It will feature 14 private suites in fi rst class, 76 new gen-eration, fully fl at seats in busi-ness class and 427 seats in the economy cabin.

Emirates now has eight A380 aircraft in its fl eet with a further 50 on order.

Etihad currently has two A340-600 aircraft confi gured with the new fi rst class suite and the airline will retrofi t nine A340s that are currently in serv-ice by December 2010.

The new fi rst class cabin con-tains 12 individual suites which offer more privacy, greater com-fort and increased storage. Each seat extends to a fully-fl at bed that is 80.5 inches in length and each private suite is accessed by its own sliding door.

Hogan is sure of the cabin’s success

Nikos Kardassis says the airline’s low-cost business has helped to boost fi gures

tioned period, while the aver-age seat factor for Jet Airways’ international operations for December stood at 84.9%.

Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardassis, said: “We have over the last year introduced sev-eral new strategic marketing and network initiatives.

“The introduction of new fl ights to neighbouring coun-tries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Qatar have resulted in increased payloads as well as a robust growth in traffi c.

“The introduction of a new business model with Jet Airways Konnect, as well as the improvement in reliabil-ity and on-time performance of JetLite have helped us in emerging as an effi cient and responsive organisation.”

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DATA

Abu Dhabi Duty Free has re-ported that revenue passed US$136 million in 2009, year-on-year growth of 12.7%.

Average spend per passen-ger rose by 5.5% over 2008.

“We are pleased to have achieved yet another signifi -cant milestone in revenue and attribute this success largely to the launch of Abu Dhabi Inter-national’s new Terminal 3 fa-cility earlier this year (2009),” said Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC) chief com-mercial offi cer Huraiz Almur Bin Huraiz.

“In addition to the luxury boutique environment that the new T3 offers, we have also reaped the rewards from be-ing a largely in-house opera-tor of duty free services to that of adopting an international,

BUSINESS

The organiser of The Airport Show in Dubai has announced that it expects to see the number of buyers attending the event to double over the previous year.

More than 80 purchasing decision makers and project leaders from live and current airport construction projects across the region are expected to attend the event in April.

Representatives that have confi rmed their participation include, Doha International, Khartoum New International in Sudan, Maharashtra Air-port Development Company in Mumbai, Cairo Airport Company in Egypt, as well as some from further afi eld.

BUSINESS

Middle East airports will spend US$86bn in expansion plans up to 2025, according to the latest research by Frost & Sullivan.

The region’s aviation indus-try has expanded despite the pressures of the global reces-sion and are expected to grow further, the company said.

Frost & Sullivan said a backlog of Middle Eastern or-ders for the A380 jets, which accounts for 50% of global de-liveries will drive the aviation sector in the region, while 12 major airports across the re-gion constitute over 90% of the total investment of $86 billion in the region.

ADDF profi ts up $136mAbu Dhabi Duty Free sees year-on-year growth of 12.7% in 2009

DATA

Dubai International is one of the world’s fastest growing air-ports for international passenger traffi c in 2009, recording growth of 9.2% for the full year. Airports Council Interna-tional’s (ACI) latest fi gures re-veal 46 of the 50 busiest airports worldwide in terms of interna-tional passenger traffi c reported negative growth during the fi rst three quarters of 2009. The only airports other than Dubai In-ternational reporting increases were Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur and Cairo.

Dubai International handled a total of 3,816,360 passengers in December 2009 compared to 3,333,424 passengers dur-ing the same month in 2008, an increase of 14.5%. This rise

best-in-class partnership ap-proach, such as the partner-ship with DFS.”

As part of the LVMH (Moet-Hennessy-Louis-Vuitton) Group, DFS’s arrival in Abu Dhabi has meant that a number of luxury brands, such as Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Loewe, and Chloe, are now available at Abu Dhabi airport.

marked the seventh consecutive double-digit increase in passen-ger traffi c and the second high-est monthly increase after Sep-tember’s 19.5% rise.

The full year passenger throughput reached a record 40,901,752 passengers, up 9.2% compared to 37,441,440 passen-gers recorded in 2008.

Not only that, cargo volumes were up 5.6% in 2009 following a 26% jump in December and double-digit increases during the last quarter of 2009.

The full year cargo traf-fi c reached 1,927,520 tonnes compared to 1,824,991 tonnes during the same period in 2008.

Dubai Airports chairman His High-ness Sheikh Ahmed

The company has com-mitted to further growth in 2010, budgeting 18% growth in turnover based on an esti-mated 12% growth in passen-ger fi gures.

Dubai Duty Free at Dubai airport generated $1.1 billion in revenue in 2009.

See page 33 for a full inter-view with DDF’s CEO.

Dubai International grows 9.2% in 2009

The new Terminal 3 at Abu Dhabi International hosts a number of luxury brands

Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said: “Dubai Airports is setting the pace globally.

“If we can set records in a tough economic environment, the sky is the limit for what we can achieve when future condi-

tions improve.”

The Airport Show doubles

Mideast airports pour $86bn into site expansions

a record up 9.2% passen-

volumeslowinger anduring

traf-onnes991 e

can achieve when future conditions improve.”

Sheikh Ahmed says the sky is the limit for Dubai Airports

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TECHNOLOGY

Axis Communications ME has launched its thermal detection camera to Middle East buyers for the fi rst time.

Capable of detecting human presence in complete darkness using thermal technology, the Axis Q1910-E camera can be used to prevent security breach-es around airport perimeters.

The camera requires no light source, as it works by detecting radiation, which is emitted by all objects, even very cold objects, like ice.

“Thermal imaging has al-ways been considered high cost, but it is now more af-fordable and becoming an in-

Thermal detection comes to the region

Achieve cabin quality for a third of the cost

tegral part of IP surveillance systems,” said Axis marketing director, Dominic Bruning.

“Customers in the Middle East region want the newest and latest technology and quite often they are more advanced in their procurement decisions than say, buyers in the UK.”

ing for repair over replacement of parts such as leather seats; a key saving during these chal-lenging times for the aviation industry, said the company.

“Our pricing policy is fairly standard and we can offer a 70% saving when repairing

leather on seats as op-posed to replacement, a distinct advantage during the recession,” said SPS director Dar-ren Brackett.

He added that ex p ec t a t ion s

were for the Dubai-based company to double in size in 2010.

FLEET

Following gaining GCAA ap-proval, the Middle East trad-ing arm of Uniters, SPS (Spe-cialised Products & Services LLC) is now offering its leather repair and restoration service to the region’s aviation market.

As exclusive global dis-tributors, SPS has a range of cabin appearance prod-ucts on offer to restore aircraft cabin interiors to their original appearance.

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SUPPLIER NEWS 13


BUSINESS

Travelport, a global distribu-tion system (GDS) provider, and Gulf Air have entered into a full content agreement that will give all Galileo and Worldspan-connected travel agents access to the airline’s fares and inventory.

The multi-year agreement marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship be-tween the GDS provider and the Bahrain-based airline.

“With a respected brand and a strong regional and inter-national route network, Gulf Air is a valued airline partner and we will continue to work closely with them to maximise their distribution capabilities and increase the accessibility of their fares across the globe,” said Travelport MEA direc-tor for airline supplier services Khalid Alkhalidi.

TECHNOLOGY

Middle East Airlines has im-plemented an integrated bag-gage management system in Lebanon, the fi rst of its kind in the country.

The new BagManager and BagMessage system, provided by aviation IT specialist SITA, will reduce the level of mis-handled baggage and will fa-cilitate security at Beirut Rafi c Hariri International Airport.

In addition, it is expected to deliver Middle East Airlines cost savings of up to 30%.

It is estimated that a mis-handled bag costs an airline on average US$90 and the worldwide cost to the indus-try is estimated at $2.9 billion per year.

According to SITA, the sys-tem will benefi t 80% of the air-

Middle East Airlines cuts lost baggage costs

Travelport renews Gulf Air deal

lines fl ying to Lebanon whose fl ights are handled by Middle East Airlines Ground Han-dling (MEAG) and will also be made available to other ground handlers at the airport.

“SITA’s solution will en-able Middle East Airlines to meet ICAO’s security rules regarding baggage reconcili-ation prior to fl ight depar-ture. On-time departures and security levels will both improve because the system makes certain that passen-gers and their baggage fl y together on the same fl ight,” said Middle East Airlines CIO Adib Charif.

SITA regional vice presi-dent, Middle East & Turkey Hani El Assaad, added: “Any airline that implements SITA BagManager has the poten-

tial of reducing the number of mishandled bags, a welcome improvement for passengers, and of course, a necessary cost saving at any time, not just during the downturn.”

TECHNOLOGY

Amadeus has entered into a long-term full content agree-ment with Lufthansa German Airlines and Swiss Interna-tional Air Lines. The agreement, which is valid from March 1, 2010 until the end of 2014, will guarantee travel agents worldwide access to the full range of Lufthansa and SWISS content through Amadeus, with no surcharge.

In addition, the technology and distribution solutions pro-vider has announced a three-year extension to its content agreement with British Air-ways, taking it up to 2013.

The renewed agreement guarantees full-content access to Amadeus users worldwide, ensuring travel agents have access to the same range of fares through Amadeus as they would through the air-line’s website.

“Full content agreements with carriers such as Brit-ish Airways, are a signifi cant part of our ongoing mission – to provide our customers with stability and clear long-term planning,” said Amadeus vice president, marketing and dis-tribution Ian Wheeler.

British Airways added that Amadeus was a trusted distri-bution channel.

‘Trusted’ Amadeus signs three more European airlines

Alkhalidi says Travelport will continue to increase the accessibility of Gulf Air’s fares

El Assaad says installing BagManager

can result in signifi cant cost savings

15


Visit www.arabiansupplychain.com for the latest news

TECHNOLOGY

Calogi, the business to business (B2B) and business to consum-er (B2C) air cargo web portal, is now making its cargo business solutions available to the air cargo community in Sharjah.

The Calogi portal is an in-ternet-based platform that al-lows all stakeholders in the car-go community to conduct their business transactions online.

Freight forwarders, airlines, third party logistics providers, customs and government agen-cies will, through the Calogi platform, have the ability to fi nalise their business transac-tions on a real-time basis and to conduct business with the cur-rent UAE subscriber base.

In addition to various on-line functions including rating, space bookings, air waybill

FLEET

Etihad Crystal Cargo operated a special Red Crescent and Kha-lifa Welfare Foundation charter fl ight to Haiti on Wednesday January 20, carrying medical and humanitarian supplies to the earthquake-hit country.

The MD11 aircraft, which used its full capacity of 88 tonnes, fl ew fi rst to Casablanca and then onto Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The cargo was unloaded there and taken to neighbouring Haiti.

The charter fl ight is part of the “Care By Air” initia-tive, founded by Maximus Air Cargo, Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi Airport Services, which provides cargo space ‘at cost’ to deliver relief aid to

Calogi to launch in SharjahAir cargo web portal has been made available to Sharjah businesses

Cargo carrier buys two 747sFLEET

Midex Airlines, the all-cargo carrier based in Al Ain, has bought two used Boeing 747-200s to meet a surge in demand in the charter market.

According to The National newspaper, the carrier, which calls Al Ain its “mother area” but has a base at Dubai Inter-national Airport and is open-ing a base in Sharjah, has in-creased its fl eet to nine after buying the freighters from Air France.

The planes were scheduled for delivery in January. The deliveries will help Midex serve emerging destinations such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is taking delivery of the aircraft even as it has curtailed services to Paris and other cit-ies due to a glut of cargo capac-ity from passenger airlines.

Where once Midex fl ew daily from Al Ain to Paris, it now operates only once a week on that route.

It has postponed plans to open cargo routes to Mumbai, Cochin, Dhaka and Istanbul.

“The market has changed with the recession, but we’ve developed our charter divi-sions and it has been excel-lent,” said Jassim Al Bastaki, the airline’s director general.

Air freight recovered strongly in November, with

Middle East volumes rising the fastest of any region worldw ide at 21.5%, said IATA.

Patrick Murray heads the web portal

execution, delivery order print-ing, track and trace and fl ight schedules, Calogi has also add-ed a number of new features, including the advertising en-gine c-Reach, enabling online web page advertising; a credit module c-Trade and the GSA-airline sales module feature, c-Power. SNTTA Cargo, the

Sharjah-based GSA provider, which serves a number of the world’s leading international airlines, became the fi rst mem-ber from Sharjah to sign a con-tract for using the Calogi GSA solution, c-Power.

Calogi head Patrick Murray said the customer list contin-ued to grow. “Our 19 tailored products are designed to serve both the automation needs of the key stakeholders in Sharjah and the functional needs of the service providers to those in-dustry stakeholders.

“We had always expected the demand for the Calogi products to grow very quickly and the signing of this contract with SNTTA in Sharjah is a testament to that.”

It is planned for Calogi to be made available to other region-al markets in the GCC soon.

Middle Eavolumes risinthe fastest any regioworldw idat 21.5%said IATA

Midex director general Jassim Al Bastaki

Etihad Crystal Cargo fl ies to Haiti

disaster-stricken areas around the world.

“Etihad is proud to support the Red Crescent and Khalifa Welfare Foundation as they try to help the people of Haiti to re-cover from the devastating ef-fects of last week’s earthquake,” commented Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan.

Maximus Air Cargo presi-dent and CEO Fathi Hilal Buhazza, said: “Maximus Air Cargo is fully committed to “Care by Air” and as a result we are keen to work together with our partners in helping the Red Crescent and Kha-lifa Foundation with their shipments to Haiti.”

Relief aid is loaded onto an MD11 aircraft bound for earthquake-hit Haiti

16 CARGO NEWS


NETWORK

Emirates’ new daily fl ights to Prague will be signifi cant to the airline’s cargo division, said the division’s senior vice president, Ram Menen.

From July 1, the non-stop service will open up a new trade channel from the Czech Republic’s capital city export-ing manufactured goods, ma-chinery, cars, transport equip-ment and beverages.

Asian companies are amongst the key players in-vesting in the country with car giants, Hyundai and Toyota having both established pro-duction plants there.

Emirates divisional sen-ior vice president, cargo Ram Menen, said: “The launch of services to Prague and the new trade channel it opens up is great news on the cargo side as it coin-cides with a continuing resur-gence of cargo traffi c globally. Emerging markets, such as the

Emirates opens Prague trade

DATA

Approximately 4.5 million tonnes of cargo was lifted by Gulf Navigation (GulfNav) in 2009, the Dubai-based com-pany has confi rmed.

From this total, 1.9 million tonnes was crude oil, while 1 million tonnes was petro-chemicals and 1.6 million tonnes was dry cargo, such as steel and timber.

GulfNav lifts 4.5m tonnes in 2009

Czech Republic, play an impor-tant role in that equation.”

In 2008, trading volume between the Czech Republic and the UAE reached US$678

million, up 19% on 2007, with exports to the UAE contribut-ing over 93%, according to fi g-ures from the Czech Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

“We are thrilled with the lifting volume results. This has defi nitely added a greater val-ue to the company’s potential in the local and international market,” commented engineer Abdullah Al Shuraim, chair-man of Gulf Navigation’s board of directors.

“Despite the economic challenges that the whole world faced during the past year, GulfNav was still able to deliver what it had prom-ised to its global clients and business partners.

“It marked great results in terms of number of voyages and total amount of cargo shipped, which really conveys our team’s dedication and en-thusiasm in the cargo fi eld,” he added.

GulfNav is marketed as the only maritime and ship-ping company listed in the Dubai Financial Market.

NETWORK

National Air Cargo is invest-ing resources to expand the company’s presence in Asia. The move forms part of a plan to develop new business opportunities in the market-place, the company said.

The fi rm recently formed a dedicated sales team for Asia and added toll free phone num-bers that will be maintained for extended hours through a call centre based in the Malay-sian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

“This investment is based on our signifi cant growth in the Asian marketplace which has grown by approximately 50% in the last year alone,” National Air Cargo regional director, Pacifi c Rim Alan White said.

“We are confi dent that this allocation of corporate re-sources will provide us with a signifi cant return on our in-vestment in this emerging glo-bal marketplace.”

The new sales team will be directed by White, who heads all National Air Cargo’s op-erations in Asia.

Hari Subramaniam has been reassigned from Dubai to India to lead the sales ef-forts there. Haryati Nordin has been hired to assist sales efforts in the commercial and charter markets and will be based in Kuala Lumpur.

Also joining the new sales team is Walter Edwards as business development man-ager and Keiko Takatsu who will serve in the capacity of account executive; both will be based in Japan.

In addition, Martha Chung has been hired as a sales sup-port executive and will be based in Seoul, Korea, where she will manage the local Na-tional Air Cargo offi ce and provide all servicing for the country’s shipping clients.

National Air Cargo plans further expansion in Asia

Emirates Cargo is hoping to win business from Asian car manufacturers in Prague

Abdullah Al Shuraim says the fi gures were a great result during a diffi cult year

18


Visit www.arabiansupplychain.com for the latest Middle East private jet news

BUSINESS

A survey of 1400 business travel managers by the Busi-ness Travel & Meetings Show (BTMS) reveals more than a quarter of budgets will be boosted for 2010 and 35% of buyers plan to book more work-related trips.

The survey, which was held in the UK, also revealed that around half (46%) of budgets will remain stable, and just 27% of managers will have less money to spend.

Four in 10 buyers will man-age the same number of trips and only one quarter will make fewer bookings.

But despite having more money in the coffers this year, buyers are being very careful spending it. As many as 81% admit they are being forced to adopt even stricter travel poli-cies for 2010. For example, 44% will be booking lower class air-line tickets, 22% lower quality

Business travel budgets bounce back

MEBAA president resigns

accommodation and 46% plan to increase their use of offi ce-based video conferencing.

Business Travel & Meet-ings Show event director Dav-id Chapple, commented: “The

business travel industry has been through a very bumpy ride over the last 18 months, so these survey results are a much needed glimmer of optimism as we enter a new decade: a

FLEET

Al Jaber Aviation (AJA) took delivery in December of its fi rst Airbus aircraft, an A318 Elite jet.

The plane is currently un-dergoing cabin outfi tting by Lufthansa Technik and AJA

AJA receives Airbus A318 Elite jetwill receive the outfi tted A318 Elite in mid-2010, when it will become the fi rst Middle East company to offer Airbus air-craft for VVIP charters.

AJA has ordered a further four A318 Elites and two Air-bus Corporate Jetliners (ACJ).

sign that things are back on track and we are heading in the right direction.”

In addition, BTMS has dis-covered in a separate survey that business travellers view online check-in as the ‘innova-tion of the decade’; followed closely by wi-fi , fl at beds, note-books and the Eurostar.

Survey respondents also threw down the gauntlet to the industry with a list of demands for future innovations to fur-ther enhance their enjoyment of business travel.

Top of the list was speed, with travellers calling for faster security, check-in and immigration processes. This was followed by the invention of a miracle child silencer, su-personic aircraft, carbon free travel and wi-fi on planes.

Notably, 82% of business travellers said they did not want mobile phones to be al-lowed on board aircraft.

BUSINESS

After three years with ME-BAA as president & CEO, Ammar Balkar has resigned from the post.

In an announcement Balkar said the decision had been taken in order to con-centrate on his current job as president & CEO of Elite Jet “during this challenging period”.

“I would like to thank you all for your support during my time with MEBAA. My three years in this post were full of ex-citement and chal-lenges, wishing you all the best in the coming years.”

Ammar Balkar has

stepped down as

president & CEO

of MEBAA

Chapple says there are signs that business travel is getting back on track


19ARABIANSUPPLYCHAIN.COM

EDITOR’S CHOICES

The online home of:

Still hungry for more news?

for regular updates on the Middle East aviation industry

SPECIAL REPORT

Top 10 travel tips for 2010The hottest aviation topics to know for the year ahead

www.arabiansupplychain.com/special-reports

Most popular headlines

1 Iranian plane fi re leaves 46 passengers injured

2 Photo Special: Airbus hands over A380 to Emirates

3 Airline refusal blamed for abandoned lions

4 Kuwait agrees plan to privatise national airline

5 Oman Air launches wi-fi

WEBSITE STATISTICS

T he CEO of Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, remains “bullish” about the aviation industry but says the economic climate will

continue to be tough in 2010.“It will be a tough year but we’re bullish,”

James Hogan said. “Like any other business we’ll have to focus on our cost but we’re also growing as a business.”

Economy ticket sales are already starting to come back but business class seats will take longer, added Hogan. “The economy traffi c we are pretty bullish about; we can see the sales, [but] the issue is the business traffi c,” he said.

He added that there is already some improvement in business class ticket sales on long haul fl ights to Chicago, Melbourne, New York and Toronto.

Despite the increase in fi gures, in November, Etihad pushed back its profi tability target to 2011, a year later than originally expected. The airline expects to see its revenues exceed US$3 billion in 2009.

Hogan said he remained confi dent that the carrier would achieve its new deadline for profi tability. “If we can get the yields…back to the same levels we had in 2008 we’ll achieve that,” he added.

ONLINE ANALYSIS

2010 aviation market outlookWhat does the future hold for Middle East airlines?

www.arabiansupplychain.com/analysis

Etihad CEO sees tough year but remains bullish

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MRO MIDDLE EAST INDUSTRY FACTS

MRO MIDDLE EAST & AIME EVENT HOURS

• Annual civil aviation growth in the Middle East is 5.2% compared to an international average of 3.9%

• The number of commercial aircraft serving the region will triple by 2028• The Middle East region is set to take delivery of 730 aircraft by 2018 with a further 689

on order up until 2028 – according to Airbus’ latest forecast• The Boeing 2009 outlook valued the Middle East market at US$300 billion over the

next two decades, which translates into an expected need for 1710 commercial jetsSource: Aviation Week

Sunday, February 28 10am – 5:30pmMonday, March 1 9am – 3:00pm

esponding to the en-couraging growth of the airline and air-craft maintenance,

repair and overhaul industries in the re-gion, the second MRO Middle East confer-ence and exhibition opens its doors on

February 28, 2010.The two-day event, organised by F&E

Aerospace in conjunction with Aviation Week, will be held at Dubai’s Airport Expo, and will be co-located with the Air-craft Interiors Middle East show.

Speakers will address the current and future forecast for the MRO market, ask-ing market experts to share the bigger picture of what is happening in the MRO market worldwide and what affect the glo-

bal economic crisis is having on the Middle East’s MRO sector. In addition, cost and staffi ng issues and supply chain trends will be addressed, with topics including, the repercussions of over-capacity in glo-bal engine overhaul; and managing your maintenance in hot climates.

Names of note include, Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali, Mubadala Aerospace asso-ciate director Homaid Al Shemmari, Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies CEO John Byers and MTU Maintenance president and CEO, commercial maintenance Dr Stefan Weingartner.

Delegates wait for the conference sessions to begin

Making time to meet people face to face is essential

MRO MIDDLE EAST & AIME 23


THE AEROSPACE & DEFENCE TRAINING SHOW

The Aerospace & Defence Training Show (ADTS) is the latest event in the stable of F&E Aerospace. Predominantly a conference with a supporting exhibition, ADTS will debut in 2010 at Dubai Airport Expo, from March 3 - 4. The event is dedicated to the growing Middle East demand for both civil and military aerospace training, recruitment and simulation.

Delivering the keynote speech on the fi rst day of the civil conference, entitled ‘Training for the 21st Century’ will be Martin Mahoney, SVP Flight Training at Emirates Aviation College in Dubai. Also speaking are Mohammed Ahmed from Air Arabia and Rick James of Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

The defence training conference will be held under the auspices of the UAE Ministry of Defence and a team of Middle East military speakers and international industry specialists will present on key topics.

The supporting exhibition will feature companies off ering the most up-to-date training courses and simulation

equipment and programmes, in addition to recruitment agencies, vocational and academic institutes

and universities.For further information visit www.adts.com

In terms of exhibitors, the ever-expand-ing Abu Dhabi Airports Company will be present, as will AJ Walter Aviation, which has made impressive inroads in the Middle East during the past 18 months. Avtrade, Asscom Middle East, Goodrich, Honey-well and TAP Maintenance & Engineer-ing will be on hand to discuss their latest products and Lufthansa Technik will also be participating.

Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME) also boasts an impressive line-up of speak-ers for the workshops running throughout the entire event. Gary Doy of the UK’s Design Q which designed the interior of BAE Systems’ Avro Business Jet (ABJ), and Noureddine Madoui of German de-sign fi rm Cas4de, who collaborated to pro-duce a unique VVIP Airbus A380 interior for a Middle East customer, will be shar-ing their experiences. In addition, Patrick Brannelly of Emirates Airline’s passenger communications will take part in a panel discussion on connectivity.

A key element of the show is the Host-ed Buyers Programme, which will see decision-makers from top airlines, includ-ing Air Asia X, Bahrain Air, Embraer, Emirates, Etihad and Wataniya Airways attending pre-scheduled meetings with ex-hibitors during the show’s two days.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum

will, once again, inaugurate this

year’s event

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Andrew Muirhead, Anker, AvioInteri-ors, Percival Aviation, Eastern Aero Ma-rine, Gerfl or, Kydex and Sabeti are just a few of the key companies taking part in the exhibition, which will feature fresh cabin designs and technological advancements.

F&E Aerospace director Alison Weller, who led the team in organising the Du-bai Airshow in 2009, expressed con-fi dence in the future of the aviation industry in the Middle East. “It’s been a diffi cult year for the industry across the globe but we saw hope-ful signs of recovery at the success-ful Dubai Airshow in November, with visitor numbers up a record 18% on the previous event and 890 exhibitors from 47 coun-tries, the biggest ever number of participants.”

Weller added that she was confi dent that this year’s AIME and MRO events would see some good deals being made between smart decision-makers in pro-curement and like-minded exhibitors.

“Come the Spring, operators will be looking to refurbish aircraft interiors and overhaul engines to meet the promise of a recovering world economy when peo-ple will start travelling again, so I believe the two co-located exhibitions for interiors and MRO are timely and we look forward

to welcoming back to Dubai Expo existing exhibitors, plus

attracting new participants and visitors.”

THE NEW 747-8 INTERCONTINENTAL.

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INTERVIEW: JIM MCNERNEY26

im McNerney barrels into the offi ce, jacket un-done, wide smile, sentences tumbling out of his mouth as he tells me how much he likes Dubai, that it’s his third visit, how the weather is fantas-tic, but not – he races on – quite as cool as he’d like. He throws himself into a chair, resettles his tie and grins. “So. What can I do for you?”

Well. My fi rst question could be why, in the cur-rent market, the chairman and CEO of Boeing is

so bouncy.Aerospace companies don’t come much sturdier than Boeing.

But if Wall Street has taught us anything in the last year, it’s that the bigger they come, the harder they can fall. True to form, then, the US titan has taken an unprecedented bat-tering in the last year. From the much-hyped but much-delayed 787 Dreamliner, to the death-spiral of the global aviation industry; the hits just keep on com-ing. And the damage shows. Boeing was an US$87 stock last May. At the time of writing, it trades at a bruised $56.

Yet McNerney, is as charming and chipper as ever. Fresh from third-quarter results (at time of interview) that wiped $1.6 billion off Boeing’s balance sheet, he is, incred-ibly, already talking of tentative green shoots. Pummelled though it is, the aviation industry has been in worse shape, he says.

“To be honest with you, [fi nancing] has been tight, but not as bad as I thought it would be,” he says lightly. “I ex-pected worse. I just think that there are so many stimulus packages and rescue packages being injected around the world, that the fi nancial system is just a little healthier.

“More airplane deals are being done; less backstop fi nancing from us than I anticipated. I think real de-mand...” he pauses. “We are beginning to see real de-mand pick up.”

Results from this month’s Dubai Airshow disagree. Despite being billed as the richest show in the industry, sales of commercial aircraft at the event slumped to their lowest in six years. Just 42 planes, worth a paltry

Future of

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney tells Jo Bladd how the plane manufacturer is sitting on a US$260 billion order book

FLIGHTFLIGHT

$56current value of Boeing’s stock. Last May it traded

at $87

Jim McNerney has plenty to smile about

December 2009www.arabiansupplychain.com February 2010

INTERVIEW: JIM MCNERNEY 27

$5.6 billion, were sold during the biennial event; a far cry from the 2007 show where orders for commercial air-craft topped $100 billion. Dubai’s Emir-ates alone placed orders for 143 new air-craft from Boeing and Airbus, at a value of nearly $35 billion.

In 2009, the only substantial commercial order came from Ethiopian Airlines, which placed a $2.9 billion deal with Boeing’s arch-rival Air-bus, for twelve A350 XWB air-craft. The world’s airlines, it would seem, were not in a buying mood.

“Obviously, we are not immune to the down-turn,” McNerney allows. “On our commercial business, the Boeing com-mercial planes, obviously our customers are under duress. Their load factors, their passenger miles are down signifi cantly and their ability to get price is impacted.”

According to industry body, the In-ternational Air Transport Association (IATA), global airline losses would total $11 billion last year; $500m of which were incurred in the Middle East.

“That puts pressure on us in terms of a deferral here, a deferral there, and orders being down,” McNerney says.

Adding to Boeing’s gloom is the news that the Pentagon is slicing its defence budget; cuts that could take a chunk out of the fi rm’s military business. Defence orders account for about half of Boeing’s annual sales, and around 80% of these are completed in the US.

McNerney shrugs. “The Obama ad-ministration has a very heavy domes-tic agenda, and there is somewhat less available for defence. So we’re feeling that pressure.”

Still, by far the biggest thorn in Boeing’s side is the 787 Dreamliner. The ‘Dream-on-Liner’, as the aircraft has been dubbed by some in the industry, was fi rst unveiled to the world in July 2007, with a promise of a maiden fl ight that September.

More than two years, six delays and a slew of technical setbacks later, the 787 fi -nally made its fi rst test fl ight in December, 2009, but both in terms of dollars – the Chicago-based fi rm has said it will swal-low a $2.5 billion charge on the plan – and reputation.

McNerney is rueful. “Look, this is the price we pay for being on the bleeding edge

of development,” he says. “There’s a price to pay; I don’t know how else

to say it. Our customers appreci-ate that we’re trying to push the envelope and give them some-thing they’ve never had before – in terms of environmental ben-efi t, productivity for them and

passenger experience. And yet they’re not happy with us for being

late. We sort of live by that sword, and we die by that sword.”

Boeing has more than $15 billion in 787 orders from Gulf airlines, but at least two – Oman Air and Qatar Airways – have threatened to rescind their orders in the wake of the delays. Boeing, for its part, has made tentative promises the jet will be delivered to anxious customers before the end of the year.

Still, recession or no recession, Boeing is in a far better position than most.

First, it remains a 150,000-employee, $36.71 billion colossus, with an order list stretching to more than 3000 planes, worth an estimated $260 billion in sales. The fi rm expected to – and did – deliver around 480 of them this year. By any measure, it’s an enviable position to be in. Just ask Boeing’s rivals.

Second, it has cannily navigated its way through worse. When McNerney took the reins in June 2005 - following stints at 3M

and GE, un-der the great Jack Welch – it was on the heels of a three-

year binge of corporate scandal. Highlights included the jailing of Boeing’s former CFO, the indictment of a manager for allegedly stealing 250,000 pages of pro-prietary documents from his former em-ployer Lockheed Martin, and a class ac-tion suit that accused the Chicago-based fi rm of paying male employees more than women. McNerney, you could say, has a track record for riding out storms.

Lastly – and a fact lost in the turbu-lence over the 787 – even delayed, Boeing’s Dreamliner is set to be a game-changing aircraft. Not only is it a quantum leap in technology (the fuselage is made from lightweight carbon composite rather than aluminum), offering unrivalled fuel effi -ciency, it’s also the test case for a whole new way of building airplanes.

With commitments for 840 planes from 55 customers, at an average list price of $178 million each, the Dreamliner is the fastest-selling new aircraft on record. De-spite the fuss and froth over the ‘seven-late-seven’ delays, the fi rm has ceded just 70 cancellations. All, says McNerney, from airlines that had “failed business models. It’s not that they didn’t want the plane.”

In part, this is because Boeing’s timing has been good. Many of the carriers most frustrated with the delays are quietly glee-ful that the 787 hasn’t stuck to schedule. With little immediate cash, they would

uring the om the 2007 ommercial air-Dubai’s Emir-

or 143 new air-bus, at a value

stantial from

placed a $2.9 rch-rival Air-air-t

of development,” he says. “There’s aprice to pay; I don’t know how else

to say it. Our customers apprecit h

and GE, un-der the great Jack Welch – it was on the heels of a three-

year binge of corporate scandal. Highlights included the jailin f Bf

$500million losses recorded by

Middle East airlines in 2009

Boeing has more than US$15 billion in 787 orders from Gulf airlines

BOEING PROFIT UP IN Q4

As Aviation Business went to press, Boeing reported a fourth quarter profi t of US$1.27 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2008 Boeing lost $86 million. Revenue rose to $17.9 billion from $12.7 billion a year earlier. The healthy fi gures came despite Boeing facing an economic downturn that shrank orders for airplanes for the full year.

“We put a strong fi nish on 2009 by getting the 787 in the air and generating solid core operating performance across the company,” said CEO Jim McNerney. Following the announcement, Boeing shares jumped $4.22 to $61.93. Boeing has projected it would earn $3.70 to $4 a share in 2010. Activities for 2010 will focus on delivering the 787 and 747-8.


INTERVIEW: JIM MCNERNEY28

Over the past fi ve to 10 years, it’s [the Middle East] become a big deal ... a very big deal, and not just commercially

have struggled to secure fi nancing in the current credit climate, had Boeing deliv-ered on time.

That said, few carriers want to ditch an order for an all-new plane that, if Boeing is true to its word, will fl y faster than the competition and cost substantially less to run and maintain.

“And that, really, is the point,” McN-erney says, bracing his hands on the ta-ble. “Planes will be made this way for the next 80 years. We went through the pain of doing it this way, but once we get out the other side, we’ll be a generation – two generations even – ahead of anybody else. These planes are 20% lighter, they have a smaller environmental footprint, and they go a long, long way. It will be more than worth it.”

He stops to grin. “I only hope I live long enough to enjoy the ‘worth it’ part, for as long as I’ve enjoyed the ‘getting-it-done’ part.”

Despite threatened cuts at the White House, Boeing’s military business is fast making up ground abroad. International sales have more than doubled in recent years to around 20% of Boeing’s defence business. In the Middle East, the aero-space giant is making a mint. For the fi rst time, its military trade has the potential to outstrip its commercial business.

“Over the past fi ve to 10 years, it’s [the Middle East] become a big deal,” McNer-ney says. “Not a little deal, but a very big deal. And not just on the commercial side but the military side. The order book on the commercial side is somewhere in the 5-8% range [of Boeing’s total order list]. On the military side, the size of the oppor-tunities we are pursuing here are probably somewhat more than that. For four or fi ve relatively small countries, that’s a lot.”

In its Seattle stronghold, however, the aerospace giant is facing turbulence. Boe-ing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 25,000 workers in Washington state, have been at each other’s throats for much of the past decade.

The union has shuttered Boeing factories four times in 20 years, including a two-month strike in 2008. Last year, following a high noon stand-off with the union, Boeing announced it was blowing town in favour of building its new 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina.

It is the company’s fi rst full produc-tion line outside the Jet City, where it employs some 54,000 people. The move has partly been forced by the pressures of the fi nancial crisis, and Boeing’s need to drive a harder labour deal. But the lure of South Carolina’s trade laws - which limit the power of unions - and the promise of an up to $400 million incentive package are likely to have sealed the deal. McNer-ney, however, insists that the bottom line is competitiveness.

“There is no doubt that this industry is globalised, and there is no doubt that Chi-na and other countries will be far bigger factors, and that Boeing and Airbus will not be the only games in town,” he argues.

“We have to assume that’ll happen, and I believe it will.

“That also means at the end of the day we have to address our costs in the States, and that gets into having a diversifi ed labour base, which is the course

we’ve chosen in the US, to not build forever, all in one

20%weight reduction of Boeing

787 when compared to similar passenger jets

spot, with one labour force. Any business that pursues an ever more globalised mar-ket has to be mindful of globalising both their presence and their costs.

Does he think the trade unions in Seat-tle understand that?

“I think – the quick answer is not al-ways,” he says, sitting back in his chair. “They’re fi ghting for the jobs of their peo-ple, and trying to get the best deal possi-ble. So there is natural tension there.”

The recession has taken its toll in other ways. Boeing sliced 8000 workers off its payroll in 2009, and is set to lose another 2000 in the fi rst quarter of this year. Mc-Nerney expects to shed more, as the year goes on.

“We’ve talked about the 10,000 and then maybe some more [in 2010],” he ad-mits. “Not in the magnitude of another 10,000, but there will be a continuation of the trend lines through to the end of the year.”

In the grand scheme of things, Boe-ing is sitting pretty amid the recession-plagued aviation industry.

Getting the 787 in the air by the end of 2009, went a long way towards soothing disgruntled buyers and buying back good-will. And, as McNerney knows, all will be forgiven once Dreamliners start rolling off the production line.

Looking back now, I ask, does McN-erney wish he‘d handled the 787 differ-ently? He sighs. “It was just a bridge too far,” he says. “[We] had an overly ambi-tious schedule and an overly ambitious partner strategy.”

For the fi rst time, Boeing outsourced almost the whole production of a plane.

“We could have done a new material, and kept the old partnership structure. Or changed the structure, but not changed the material to make the plane. We tried to change it all at once and...it was just a bridge too far.”

There is a moment’s pause before he brightens. “Still,” he says. “We learn from it. Next time, we’ll do it better.”

Jo Bladd is deputy editor of Arabian Business magazine.

McNerney is preparing to make job cuts in 2010

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brings together all the search functions available in the marketplace including; calendar display, price, destination and map display, but Affi nity Shopper changes how leisure travellers engage with airlines online and signifi cantly improves the ef-fi ciency of the online channel for airlines. Search is integrated with the booking process, making it simple for the customer to move directly from the shopping stage to the booking itself.

From the consumer perspective Af-fi nity Shopper allows a traveller to ask a complex series of questions within a very easy to use interface on an airline’s web-site. Results can be returned for highly personalised questions such as: “I would like to go to the beach, I have a budget of US$300 and I’m keen on a temperature of over 30C, oh and I’m looking for some-where with good water sports”. As you’ve probably noticed there is no mention of a specifi c destination – that’s because most

leisure travellers don’t mind where they fl y to, as long as it meets their motivations for travel.

The secret ingredient in travel search is access and the ability to process travel-specifi c data; this includes fl ight schedules, availability and pricing information. Only by aggregating, organising and indexing this data at lightning speed are consumers offered the usability and relevance they expect from, say, a general Google search. We’ve worked hard to combine this spe-cifi c data with the investments made in our highly scalable computing systems and the result is Affi nity Shopper.

Airlines can realise a number of ben-efi ts from Affi nity Shopper, the fi rst be-ing increased customer satisfaction. This is made possible by quickly delivering search results that are specifi cally in line with customer requirements and reducing the time taken to plan and book.

Reduced costs and increased revenues as a result of better look-to-book ratios due to the improved user experience and quality of personalised search results have also been reported. Airlines incur a cost for every search conducted on their website and by reducing the need to shop based on a destination and allowing customers to search in the way they think, airlines can reduce searches and therefore technology costs. In addition, airlines implementing Affi nity Shopper on their website are able to promote specifi c or under-used routes by matching them to certain activities within the search process such as winter sports, culture or fi ne cuisine.

There have been many and signifi cant strides made in search and shopping ca-pabilities and it will be those airlines that can offer leisure travellers the most rel-evant, simple to use and effective online experience that will foster loyalty and ul-timately drive revenue.

T ravellers are getting increasingly fed up with confusing and com-plicated websites that often force them to wade through endless

pages of information. In fact, only 33% of American travellers feel that travel websites do a good job presenting travel choices. According to Forrester Research, by 2013, the number of travellers research-ing and booking their trip online will have grown, but only by a modest 16%. For-rester argues that the main reason for this modest growth is that many sites are not up to standard. A combination of poor de-sign, concerns about security and most sig-nifi cantly, infl exible options are to blame.

Current search facilities operate in a linear way and travel queries are prima-rily conducted based on known destina-tion and specifi c travel dates. Consumers have to spend signifi cant time and effort to narrow the options down to what they are truly looking for. We know from trav-eller feedback that leisure travellers often don’t know what they really want. Even if they do, they still want to compare options and offers.

Amadeus has been working on a con-cept called Extreme Search which is de-signed to address this issue. Extreme Search serves the leisure traveller with solutions that are more intuitive, allowing them to search in the way they think. Hol-iday makers are able to explore and deter-mine the trip they are interested in based on their desired travel experience, not the linear origin and destination parameters our industry relies on today.

Affi nity Shopper is the fi rst incarnation of the Amadeus Extreme Search concept for airlines. It is a search tool that enables leisure customers to search for options that satisfy their true reasons for travel with-out needing to specify precise travel dates or a particular destination. The solution

Question: How is new technology reinventing the travel shopping experience on airline websites?

ASK THE EXPERT30 ASK THE EXPERT30

Meeting travel needsExpert: Amadeus VP e-commerce Denis Lacroix


FACE TO FACE 31

UNITEDFRONT

Should Dubai centralise air traf-fi c control in the Gulf region in a bid to reduce congestion?If one was to design a global air traffi c control system starting with a clean sheet of paper and without taking into account institutional/military/sovereignty/politi-cal issues it would look very different to what we have today. Each region could operate a limited number of en-route air traffi c control centres for the entire upper space of that region and under the respon-sibility of a single regional air navigation service provider. This would, result in increased effi ciencies (reduce costs), in-creased capacity and most importantly increased safety. The implementation of such a system from a technology point of view would be straightforward as it can be deployed using technology available today. The social, political and economic issues on the other hand would not be so straightforward and would require the strongest political will at the highest levels in government to make it happen. Obvious potential showstoppers would be where such a regional ATC system should be located, who should operate the system, impact on jobs, implications for national security, etc.

Is a lack of communication between various aviation authorities in the region to blame for air traffi c issues not being addressed sooner then?It is not a question of blame. The only real solution to the problem is to create a competitive environment. Air naviga-tion service providers should be priva-tised and the delivery of services should be awarded by the government following a competitive tendering exercise for peri-

ods of up to fi ve to 10 years. The serv-ices contracted should be against defi ned service level agreements and investment plans for continued modernisation.

What will the opening of the new Jebel Ali airport mean for air traffi c in the UAE?There is an urgent need to increase air-space capacity in the region itself and adjacent regions. This challenge can only be realistically addressed through regional and inter-regional collaboration between the governments, militaries and air navigation service providers. The in-troduction of air/ground data link serv-ices enabling pilot/controller exchange of text messages, which is mandated for im-plementation in Europe from 2011, will contribute to enhancing both safety and increasing airspace capacity as it will en-able signifi cant reductions in controller workloads currently spent on delivering

voice instructions over the VHF radio/telephone service. Ultimately it may be necessary to evaluate the benefi ts of in-troducing a regional fl ow management system that will be able to manage air-space capacity versus demand.

What are the benefi ts to the Middle East region in adopting IP networks for ATC communications?The primary driver is to enable the seam-less exchange of air traffi c management information (e.g. fl ight plan data, radar data) between air navigation service pro-viders in the region through a common infrastructure that will enhance both the effi ciency and safety of the air navigation service. An equally important driver is that such a network is readily scalable to include additional stakeholders (e.g. military, airlines, airport operators) to enable the effi cient and timely exchange of information. This should result in the basis of what the industry terms collabo-rative decision making and eventually system wide information management, the latter being a key objective of the multi-billion dollar European SESAR and US NextGen air traffi c modernisa-tion programmes. A fi nal key driver is to support air traffi c control voice com-munications between ATC centres over IP. Estimates in Europe indicate that in excess of €20 million (US$28.3 million) per year is spent on ATC voice commu-nications lines. The migration of these ATC voice services over a regional IP backbone has the potential to deliver signifi cant savings. The availability of regional IP backbones is essential and in-deed a pre-requisite to the deployment of regionalised ATC applications.

New systems and a fresh approach will change the way that air traffi c control operates, says SITA head of air traffi c management Akhil Sharma

December 2009www.arabiansupplychain.com February 2010DDDDDDDDDDeDeDDDDDDeDeDeDeeeeeDDDeeeeeeeeeDeeeDDeeeDeeDDDDeDeeeDeeDeDeeeeeDeeeeDDeeeDeeDeee bbb rrrrreeeeeebbbeb uuauua yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyececececcccccccccceccceceecccceeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeccceeeeeeeeeeccceeeeeeeeeeeeccceeeeeeeeeeeeccceeeeeeeeeeeecceeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeecccceeeeeeeeeeecceeeeeeeeecceeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeceeeeeecceeeemmmmmmmbmbmbbbeeemeeeeeemmmmmememme bemmmmmmemeemmmememmbeemmmm eeeeeerrrrerrrerrererrrrrrrrrerrrrrrrrrrrerrrrrrecececccccccccccecccecccceeeeeeeececeeeeeeeeeeecceeeeeeeeecceeccceeccceecceceeececceceeecce eemmmmmmbmbmbeemeeeeeemmmmememme bemmmemememeem eeeeeerrrreererrrrrerrrrrr 222220000022222222 00000222220020020020020020000200200002 022 022 0200022 0000000999999999999999992222200200200200200002020002 022 022 0009999999999999

INTERVIEW: COLM MCLOUGHLIN 33

olm McLoughlin was only set to stay in Dubai for six months when he came over in 1983 to help set up the airport’s duty

f r e e operation. Sent on secondment from Shannon airport in Ireland, he was asked to stay on as head of

the new operation when his contract was up.Almost three decades later, he is still here

and loving life as managing director of Du-bai Duty Free (DDF). In that time, Dubai

Duty Free has doubled its revenue six times and it was recently confi rmed that DDF was the world’s larg-est duty free operation by sales in 2009.

The company now employs 3500 people, sells one and a half million pieces of merchandise every week and processes more than 55,000 transactions every day.

Revenue for 2009 came in at US$1.1 billion, around 3% up on 2008.

“I’d say we’ve only just begun,” says McLough-lin, of DDF’s progress so far. “I think there’s a great future.”

Dubai Duty Free has grown hand in hand with Dubai, its airport and its airline and has played a ma-jor part in building up the Dubai brand. Dubai Duty Free has been a pioneer in the fi eld of sports marketing, sponsoring a number of events over the years and creating its own high profi le events, like the Dubai Tennis Championships, that are now part of the international sports calendar.

The diverse nature of the job, which includes managing a huge retail operation, events man-agement and running a number of leisure destinations, such as the Avia-tion Club, is one reason why McLoughlin is still in it after 26 years. “Every single day, we deal with different kinds of things,” he says. “Going to work is very exciting and I think we all love it.”

Throughout McLoughlin’s time in charge, one of the keys to the organisation’s success has been stability. Of the 100 peo-ple who were with DDF when it started in 1983, 57 are still employed there and most have moved up the corporate ladder. In the IT department, all staff bar the person in charge were in non-IT positions at DDF and were retrained to do tech jobs.

“Except for only one small period, all our jobs in the duty free have been internal promotions,” the managing director ex-plains. “That’s something we decided right at the beginning.”

Recently, there has, of course, been the small matter of 2009 and the worst recession since the 1930s to contend with. “2009 started a little bit shakily, like the rest of the duty free industry,

and after a few months of the year we were down on 2008 in revenue,” McLoughlin confi rms. “But, we

reckoned we should do something about it and we did various things.”

Measures included more use of promotions, dis-counts and one-off special offers to entice

reluctant customers to spend. A series of one-

day promotions, when all prices in a category would be cut by 20%, was particularly successful. On December 20, the day in which DDF celebrat-

We’ve only just

The head of Dubai Duty Free shares the secrets of running the world’s most successful airport retail operation

BEGUN

$1.1billion in revenue was

recorded by Dubai Duty Free in 2009 – 3% up

on 2008

Dubai Duty Free has grown hand in hand

with Dubai

February 2010


INTERVIEW: COLM MCLOUGHLIN34

ed its 26th anniversary, daily sales reached $17.3 million, with perfumes, cosmetics and watches proving par-ticularly popular.

DDF’s consumption of packaging, water and elec-tricity was reviewed and kept under tight control. Overtime was kept down to a minimum and when overtime was worked, time off in-lieu was offered to employees. Recruitment was put on hold for six months of the year, but one thing DDF has not done is lay off employees.

“We met all our staff and tried to share the problems with them, we tried to en-thuse them and the response was fantas-tic,” says McLoughlin. “We have targets to reach and there was great excitement when we reached our targets.

As a result of the measures imple-mented, sales picked up after a sluggish fi rst quarter and were 3.76% up in 2009, compared to 2008. Net profi t is growing faster than revenue and was up 11% year on year for the period January-October.

The increase in net profi t has helped offset a recession-ary decline in average spend per customer. Overall, 2009 has been a valuable learn-ing experience for DFF

and many of the things that worked last year will continue

to be implemented in the future.“I think we learned a lot from 2009,

from the point of view of the merchan-dise we sell, the value that customers ex-pect, the kind of sales efforts we should be making and how important it is to keep your staff with you as a group. We have the notion in Duty Free that we are a team, that we’re all kicking with the same foot and I think this year tested that and we came out very positively. We think it was a great year.”

I think we learned a lot from 2009, from the point of view of the merchandise we sell and the value that customers expect

2009 was also the fi rst full year of operation for Terminal 3, the dedicated Emirates terminal that opened at Dubai International in late 2008. The opening has more than doubled the airport’s duty free space from 7000 to 15,000 square metres in a single swoop.

McLoughlin describes the fi rst year of operation as “successful” overall, saying that Terminal 3 accounted for around 54% of revenue in 2009. Sales of ladies fashion saw an increase of 36% in 2009, which is no doubt attributed to the ex-tended fashion offer available following the opening of Terminal 3.

Lessons have been learned though and key points to have emerged from year one are that spend per head is low-er there than in Terminal 1; the termi-nal’s distinctive central spine is likely

3.76%rise in sales at Dubai Duty

Free in 2009, compared to 2008

A panoramic view of Dubai Duty Free’s operations in Terminal 3

35


INTERVIEW: COLM MCLOUGHLIN

We will double our business again in the next fi ve or six years; In fi ve years, we think we will be doing nearly US$2.5 billion in sales

to be changed and duty free’s location in arrivals “isn’t the best position in the world”.

“In our design of the shops there, we have some things that are very good, some things that are not so good and we are correcting them,” the managing di-rector says.

While the opening of Terminal 3 has been a big event for DDF, there is a lot more scheduled to come. The construc-tion of Concourse 3 is underway at Du-bai International and when it opens in 2012, another 8500 square metres of re-tail space will be added to the 15,000 already at the airport.

Before that, however, phase one of Al Maktoum Internation-al, the brand new airport near Jebel Ali, is scheduled to open in June 2010. Dubai Duty Free will have 3000 square metres of retail space at the airport on day one.

By June 2012, McLoughlin ex-pects the new developments to have driven Dubai Duty Free’s headcount up to 5000 people.

Big as both these developments un-doubtedly are, there is even more in the pipeline. The masterplan for Al Mak-toum International envisages the export being expanded, over time and in stages, to accommodate 160 million passengers per year. Dubai International, by com-parison, currently handles around 40 million per year.

When the new airport reaches that level of 160 million, probably in around a decade and a half, DDF will be operat-ing 64,000 square metres of retail space across its various terminals. With its ex-pansion into Al Maktoum International in mind, DDF has recently purchased 730 apartments in Discovery Gardens for staff use.

“We’ve doubled our business six times over the last 25 years,” says McLough-lin. “Our ten year strategic plan, if we’ve got it nearly right, means we will double our business again in the next fi ve or six

years. So we think that in fi ve years, we will be

doing nearly $2.5 billion in sales.”Expansion at Al Mak-

toum International all depends, of course, on the success of the project and doubts have been raised about the likelihood of the 160 million target ever being reached.

Asked how he feels about the new air-port and its chances of success, McLou-glin replies: “I think it’s great. The fore-casts indicate that traffi c is going to con-tinue growing here. We have witnessed it ourselves growing from 3 million a year to 40 million. Dubai is a small place, but it’s a hub in the centre of millions and millions of people.”

Asked how he feels about the possi-bility of Dubai International eventually closing down and all air traffi c mov-ing to the new airport, he jokes: “It matters at the moment because I live across the road,” adding, “If I was the only one in the whole world that had to decide, I would opt for Dubai World Central with bigger capac-ity and six runways.” DDF’s success has not,

39%rise in sales of ladies fashion

at Dubai Duty Free’s new Terminal 3 in 2009

of course, gone unnoticed by others, but the company’s overseas forays have been somewhat limited. The company helped Jordan set up its duty free operations, though purely on a consultancy basis, and it made unsuccessful bids to run duty free operations at Beirut and Co-lombo’s international airports.

The main reason why it hasn’t tried to expand more aggressively overseas is simply the phenomenal rate of growth at home. “Doing something in a small airport hasn’t been that high up our list. When proposals have come in we have studied them, one or two we have followed up, but we haven’t gone and done work anywhere except in Jor-dan,” explains Mcloughlin. “We have been fairly busy trying to stay abreast

of what we are doing, he concludes.

ess ixink

people.”how he feels about the possi-ubai International eventuallywn and all air traffi c mov-new airport, he jokes: “It the moment because I live road,” adding, “If I was

ne in the whole world that ide, I would opt for Dubai

ntral with bigger capac-six runways.”

ccess has not,

been fairly busy trying to stay abreast of what we are doing,

he concludes.

The opening of Terminal 3 in October 2008 added 8000 square metres to the duty free space

McLoughlin has helped to set up Queen Alia

airport’s duty free operations

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PROJECT FOCUS: NEW DOHA 37

he New Doha In-ternational Airport (NDIA) is a key

project in Qatar’s na-tional development strat-egy. The airport will fulfi ll three critical roles: for Qa-tar to be the gateway to the world, to be the hub for Qa-tar Airways and other air-

lines, and to serve as a cargo and aircraft maintenance centre.

NDIA will be one of the fi rst airports in the world to accommodate unrestricted op-erations by all commercial aircraft, includ-

ing the new Airbus A380 airliner that will soon be added to Qatar Airways’ fl eet. At opening day (2011), NDIA is designed to annually accommodate 24 million passen-gers, 1.4 million tonnes of cargo and more than 360,000 aircraft movements.

The ultimate master plan al-lows NDIA an ultimate capac-ity to annually accommodate nearly 50 million passengers and 2.5 million tonnes of cargo. The site area of 22 square kilometres has the capacity for two runways, a mega passenger terminal,

Qatar’sA look at the ambitious project for the state-of-the-art New Doha International

BIG PLANG PLAN

50million passengers will be

accommodated at NDIA once the ultimate master plan

is complete

more than 100 aircraft stands, a full range of airport support facilities, and extensive commercial developments.

In time for the opening day, two run-ways with lengths of 4850 metres and

4250 metres, separated 2 kilometres apart will be provided. The pas-

senger terminal and concourse will be about 600,000 square metres and will provide 41 contact gates and 22 remote gates. Other facilities include the Emiri Terminal, air traffi c

control tower, cargo complex and maintenance centre.

PROJECT FOCUS: NEW DOHA38

2 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWERLike a pivot in the centre of the air-

port, the crescent-shaped Airport Traffi c Control Tower will provide the control between the two parallel runways and airside facilities at the New Doha Interna-tional Airport.

The Air Traffi c Control Tower will be an elevated, triangular shaped structure, topped by a glazed control room, about 85 metres above the airport. From here, air traffi c control staff will have unob-structed views of all aircraft movements, on runways, taxiways and aprons.

The technical complex at the base of the tower will comprise multi-storey buildings, parking facilities and access roads. This will house the advanced tech-nical systems for the control tower – in particular that relating to the approach control room. There will also be a training room that can be used as a control room in case of emergency.

3 CARGO TERMINALLocated in the midfi eld area, NDIA’s

cargo complex is made up of seven facili-ties covering more than 290,000 square metres and will have the capacity for processing 1.4 million tonnes of cargo per year, making it amongst the largest cargo terminals in the world.

A main feature of the cargo complex is the 48,000 square metres Cargo Terminal building which houses the Air Cargo Han-dling System. The system has the capacity to accommodate more than 1000 main

deck ULDs and more than 5000 individ-ual consignments. The Cargo Ware-

house Information System (CWIS) will ensure that the locations of all of the cargo in the terminal are tracked so that the cargo can be processed quickly.

Other features are the special cargo, hazardous cargo and high

value cargo areas.


1 PASSENGER COMPLEXThe design of the roof structure alone

is enough to ensure that NDIA stays in the mind of the international traveller as a landmark structure in the world of avia-tion. Refl ecting the terminals’ seaside set-ting, the roof will be wave-like in structure. The transparent façade of the terminal be-neath, further emphasises its state-of-the-art curves. Inside the terminal, the design focus has been on the creation of a spacious but ef-fi cient and convenient airport experience. The result is a multi-level building with arched columns, generous skylights and highlighted fi nishes that enhance the feel-ing of space.

The passenger terminal is de-signed so that all passenger trans-fers can occur under one roof. With short walking distances between gates, and shorter connection times between fl ights, passenger waiting and walking times are minimised, all helping to ensure an eff ort-

less passenger experience within the facility. In addition to this,

passenger processing will be managed to ensure quick passenger processing.

An extensive central area has been designed for

duty free, retail, food and beverage amenities and air-

600,000square metres will make up

the space covered by the terminal and concourse

1.4million tonnes of cargo

per year can be processed at NDIA’s new cargo complex

line lounges. All departing passengers will walk through this area. The terminal will also have a 100-room transit hotel with health and entertainment facilities.

Signifi cant thought has also been giv-en to the exterior of the facility. Featuring a man-made lagoon and strategic land-scaping, the intent has been to create a lush green space.

PROJECT FOCUS: NEW DOHA 39


4 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE BASEThe Aircraft Maintenance Base at

NDIA will be the central maintenance hub for Qatar Airways’ international fl eet. Lo-cated in the midfi eld area, it will be capa-ble of holding a maximum of eight wide body, and two narrow body aircraft, with two positions capable of servicing the fu-ture Airbus A380s.

The base is in the form of a large hangar for both line-base and heavy maintenance. The design of its layout and column-free spacing is focused on ensuring fl exible air-craft parking at all times to deliver maxi-mum maintenance effi ciency.

The workshop building at the back of the aircraft hangar bays will provide spe-cialised maintenance and automat-ed spare parts storage.

The central engineering offi ce for Qatar Airways will be located adjacent to the hangar and workshops. This building will house the airline’s engineering departments including mainte-nance and quality assurance.

5 CATERING BUILDINGThe NDIA catering facility will be one

of the world’s largest in-fl ight catering fa-cilities when completed, equipped with a fully automated in-fl ight and bulk kitchen catering facility covering approximately 65,000 square metres of food operations and production area for a daily meal pro-duction capacity of 85,000.

The facility comprising a three-storey structure and basement will be a state-of-the-art facility within the industry and will include an automatic cart transport system, automatic bin conveyor system, automatic storing and retrieval systems,

high bay pallet store, kitchen by food types, freezing

and chilled rooms, linen stor-age and laundry

facilities, airside and landside

food production, and administrative

and staff amenities, amongst others.

8wide body aircraft can be housed in NDIA’s Aircraft Maintenance Base at any

one time

KEY FEATURES OF NDIA• The home base and hub of Qatar Airways• Provide unconstrained A380 aircraft operations• Be partly reclaimed from the Gulf• Provide state-of-the-art facilities• Provide high level of service, comfort and convenience• Accommodate Qatar’s aviation needs for the next 50 years and beyond

85,000in-fl ight meals per day can

be produced at NDIA’s three-storey kitchen

catering facility


ritish Airways may op-erate 26 weekly fl ights from the UAE to Lon-don Heathrow, but ex-perts from the global air-

line state that landmark sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup

and a growing trend to-wards eco-tourism will in-

fl uence the travel calendar in 2010.Not only that, but the airline’s New

York and Las Vegas routes are tipped to the most popular amongst Middle East customers in 2010.

Middle East travellers are preparing to venture further afi eld than ever before

TTOOPP 1100TRAVEL DESTINATIONS FOR 2010

TOP 10 41

1CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICANearly half a million supporters are ex-

pected to visit South Africa during the FIFA World Cup in June. With Cape Town home to stunning beaches, mountains, vineyards and the Cape Town Stadium, it’s sure to be a popular base for fans.

BA commercial manager in South Af-rica Sue Botes, says: “Cape Town has always been a popular destination, we expect the World Cup to push it to the top of the long-haul league table as the best place to be in 2010. We are already preparing for the event and have additional fl ights in place, as well as our local carrier Comair to connect fans to destinations around the republic.”

3LAS VEGAS, USANot just a haven for partying – Las Vegas is fi rmly established as a family friendly destina-

tion with everyone from U2 to Cirque de Soleil performing on the famous strip. It is a newly launched route from BA off ering greater connectivity to Middle East travellers.

2 ISTANBUL, TURKEYAs the ‘European Capital of Culture’

for 2010, Istanbul is Europe’s hotspot for the year ahead, off ering value for money at its beaches and bazaars.

Eco-tourism puts Stockholm on the map, while Istanbul is expected to be one of the most visited European destinations in recognition of its recent title of ‘Euro-pean City Of Culture’.

“Our regional customers recognise that there’s a world of opportunity out there; from Croatia’s magical Dalmatian Coast, to Las Vegas and New York, and to the breathtaking snow-capped mountains of Vancouver,” says British Airways regional commercial manager for the Middle East Paolo De Renzis.

British Airways’ top 10 list for 2010 destinations follows.

4 VANCOUVER, CANADAAlready a must-go destination for

skiing and snowboarding, it’s no sur-prise that Canada will play host to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games this month and next.

42 TOP 10


7 DUBROVNIK, CROATIAKnown as the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’,

Croatia off ers privacy and tranquility mak-ing it a popular hideout for the Middle East jet set.

British Airways commercial manager for Croatia Mirjana Dostal, says: “Du-brovnik holds many attractions and de-lightful boutiques, with each corner of the city off ering an individual experience. However, its cluster of private islands has made this a new favourite destination for elite travellers.”

8 STOCKHOLM, SWEDENRegularly voted one of the best cities in

the world to live in, Stockholm has become the model city for others to follow. Europe’s epicentre of biodiversity and ecology will celebrate its offi cial title of ‘European Green Capital’ in 2010, making it a popular choice for eco-tourists.

9 THE MALDIVESSet in the Indian Ocean, this tropical

paradise will be one of the hottest des-tinations for holidaymakers and honey-mooners in 2010. Collections of coral reefs boast unrivalled facilities for diving, while the picture postcard beaches off er chill-out bliss to the maximum.

10 DELHI, INDIAThanks to the growing trend for

‘tiger safari’, nearby destinations Bandhav-garh Wildlife Sanctuary and Kanha National Park provide another reason to get off the beaten track and visit Delhi in 2010.

6 NEW YORK, USAThe city that never sleeps has al-

ways been hip, and Middle East travel-lers will continue to make the long-haul fl ight to the Big Apple, say analysts.

5PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Punta Cana is one of the emerging destina-tions for holidaymakers in 2010, with tour operators and industry experts citing local beaches as ‘the most stunning in the Carib-bean’. Known for its golf and spa facilities, the island is one of the best-kept property secrets in recent times.


AVIATION DATA44

A SUMMARY OF LATEST INDUSTRY STATISTICS FROM AROUND THE WORLDKnowledge of passenger numbers is crucial to improving the aviation business, particularly during the current economic slowdown. Every month we bring you up-to-date industry fi gures

Passengers = total passengers enplaned and deplaned (transit passengers counted once). Cargo = loaded and unloaded freight & mail. Source = Airports Council International *Growth rate > 200% or < -50% due to extraordinary circumstances, i.e. war, social and political unrest, major sports events, new routes.

AVIATION FACTS & FIGURESFACTS & FIGURES

OCTOBER 2009/2008 YEAR-TO-DATE OCTOBER 2009/2008CITY/COUNTRY PASSENGERS CARGO MOVEMENTS PASSENGERS CARGO MOVEMENTS

(tonnes) % CHG (tonnes) % CHG (tonnes) % CHG (tonnes) % CHG (tonnes) % CHG (tonnes) % CHG

MIDDLE EASTABU DHABI, UAE 797,433 2.8 36,448 24.8 9131 15.5 7,971,727 7.0 312,390 4.6 83,889 9.0

BAHRAIN 747,401 2.5 27,896 (3.8) 8892 4.7 7,429,328 2.1 281,993 (8.1) 85,071 1.6

BEIRUT, LEBANON 388,771 10.5 6440 8.9 5935 19.9 4,174,602 24.0 59,530 7.0 55,210 23.6

DUBAI, UAE 3,496,366 11.7 185,868 17.7 24,730 7.1 33,565,105 8.3 1,552,748 2.2 230,285 3.1

KUWAIT 674,889 15.5 17,668 21.5 8443 17.7 6,849,033 12.7 166,012 10.2 81,570 11.2

MUSCAT, OMAN 396,079 19.2 6418 37.7 4995 30.5 3,690,169 10.5 51,864 5.9 44,748 18.4

SHARJAH, UAE 489,453 15.8 37,544 18.4 5611 1.5 4,668,807 5.9 340,930 14.2 53,005 1.3

AFRICAACCRA, GHANA 121,268 10.0 3386 (32.9) 1716 5.1 1,153,122 1.1 38,317 (12.5) 16,625 9.1

CAIRO, EGYPT 1,243, 180 (7.5) 23,012 7.5 12, 252 1.4 11,904,349 (1.5) 233,279 1.2 117,288 2.9

CAPETOWN, SA 695,617 0.0 ***** ***** 8014 (4.7) 6,299,141 (5.8) ***** ***** 77,089 (5.1)

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO 561,450 4.2 4232 2.5 6545 10.1 5,271,777 1.1 45,560 (5.9) 59,740 (0.8)

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZ 129,784 1.9 1583 (8.1) 5492 (4.8) 1,168,803 (9.9) 15,616 (20.0) 48,212 (6.9)

JOHANNESBURG, SA 1,579,489 (1.7) 25,274 (2.4) 18,059 (4.6) 14,556,615 (6.8) 203,066 (23.5) 168,331 (6.3)

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO 289,053 (0.0) 65 14.5 2879 5.1 2,480,066 (5.5) 1251 8.6 24,566 (7.9)

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT 744,174 2.4 ***** ***** 5467 (0.1) 6,021,886 (6.5) ***** ***** 45,518 (7.5)

ASIA PACIFICBANGKOK, THAILAND 3,668,422 19.4 100,617 1.6 22,330 7.1 32,686,864 (2.8) 837,259 (18.8) 212,217 (1.1)

BEIJING, CHINA 6,003,374 5.7 121,310 2.9 41.987 3.7 54,503,771 18.1 1,151,240 0.1 406,131 15.1

MANILA, PHILIPPINES 1,872,449 2.9 40,033 30.9 18,524 6.4 19,946,526 9.4 285,133 (5.5) 187,881 11.9

MUMBAI, INDIA 2,258,795 23.3 50,890 10.3 20,521 7.2 20,084,735 (2.0) 464,806 (2.2) 199,273 (1.9)

NEW DELHI, INDIA 2,293,936 26.8 42,924 21.4 21,743 12.2 20,441,461 5.3 386,895 1.1 201,750 1.8

SINGAPORE 3,320,887 6.0 156,738 2.0 21,491 7.9 30,006,400 (3.6) 1,353,703 (15.6) 201,578 3.7

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 3,113,830 6.2 ***** ***** 25,715 (0.0) 27,416,239 (1.1) ***** ***** 241,010 (4.0)

TOKYO, JAPAN 5,514,329 (9.1) 73,487 (2.6) 28,386 (1.3) 51,754,299 (7.5) 626,614 (9.9) 279,542 (1.3)

EUROPEFRANKFURT, GERMANY 4,626,179 (1.9) 181,687 (0.1) 40,674 (4.4) 43,183,386 (5.7) 1,514,510 (15.2) 388,793 (5.4)

LONDON, UK 5,696,302 1.1 126,646 (0.4) 39,003 (4.7) 45,667,899 (2.0) 1,090,535 (12.8) 391,361 (2.8)

MADRID, SPAIN 4,211,786 3.4 33,689 1.7 37,367 (3.9) 40,837,010 (6.5) 262,426 (12.5) 364,967 (8.7)

MUNICH, GERMANY 3,113,868 0.1 20,926 (9.9) 35,486 (7.9) 27,733,865 (6.5) 187,017 (15.7) 335,898 (8.8)

PARIS, FRANCE 5,067,874 (1.9) 162,500 (7.4) 44,998 (6.3) 49,195,937 (5.4) 1,482,180 (13.5) 444,894 (6.3)

NORTH AMERICAATLANTA 7,578,697 (1.1) 53,695 (3.1) 82,304 (0.3) 74,121,172 (2.1) 453,673 (18.2) 813,030 (0.7)

CHICAGO 5,675,097 (5.5) 118,827 0.4 71,755 (4.9) 54,366,313 (10.3) 921,477 (20.0) 692,738 (7.6)

DALLAS FORT WORTH 4,759,285 (0.5) 55,148 (4.5) 54,578 (0.5) 46,971,737 (2.5) 507,724 (9.3) 532,063 (3.5)

LOS ANGELES 4,761,632 1.7 144,314 4.2 46,049 (1.7) 47,272,124 (7.1) 1,212,472 (12.9) 453,728 (14.7)

T he improvement trend continued in October 2009, with airports reporting an increase of 1.8% in total global traf-fi c. Continuing growth in Asia Pacifi c and Middle East markets also contributed to the improving overall results,

with the latter recording a year-on-year increase in total passen-gers of 8.7%. Global traffi c has continued to climb since May 2009, with domestic traffi c leading the renewed demand curve, notably from Indian airports reporting particularly good results.


AVIATION DATA

260

290

320

350

380

410

22 J

an 1

0

15 J

an 1

0

08 J

an 1

0

01 J

an 1

0

25 D

ec 0

9

18 D

ec 0

9

11 D

ec 0

9

04 D

ec 0

9

27 N

ov

09

20 N

ov

09

13 N

ov

09

Air carrier delay 3.39%

Diverted 0.14%

Ontime 88.59%

Cancelled 0.54%

Aircraft arriving late 3.23%

Weather delay 0.20%

National aviationsystem delay 3.91%

Security delay 0.01%

45

SOURCE: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (www.transtats.bts.gov)

Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between North Africa and Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between North Africa and Western Europe (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*Western Europe (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*

AIRLINEAIRLINEWEEKLY CAPACITYWEEKLY CAPACITY WEEKLY FREQUENCYWEEKLY FREQUENCY WEEKLY SEATSWEEKLY SEATS

ASK MillionASK Million Change (%)Change (%) TotalTotal Change (%)Change (%) TotalTotal Change (%)Change (%)

AIGLE AZUR 46 5 204 4 35,836 4

AIR ALGERIE 50 11 283 11 41,901 14

AIR FRANCE 65 3 250 9 38,652 8

TUNIS AIR 67 8 366 12 51,680 9

BRITISH AIRWAYS 31 24 56 8 10,982 13

EGYPT AIR 123 15 246 13 45,994 19

KLM-ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES 23 15 30 11 6894 15

LUFTHANSA GER-MAN AIRLINES 30 -27 77 -11 13,473 -14

TURKISH AIRLINES 39 56 106 47 19,614 58

AIR ARABIA MAROC 51 0 168 0 25,200 0

Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between North Africa andPlanned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between North Africa andMiddle East (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*Middle East (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*

AIRLINEAIRLINE

WEEKLY CAPACITYWEEKLY CAPACITY WEEKLY FREQUENCYWEEKLY FREQUENCY WEEKLY SEATSWEEKLY SEATS


AIR ARABIA 26 18 62 9 10,044 17

EMIRATES 76 15 76 23 20,326 11

ETIHAD AIRWAYS 20 -9 36 -14 5880 -13

GULF AIR 12 -8 32 0 5798 -10

JAZEERA AIRWAYS 16 14 58 26 9570 26

MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES 3 200 28 100 4982 139

OMAN AIR 8 33 14 0 2968 36

QATAR AIRWAYS 61 13 96 9 19,784 12

ROYAL JORDANIAN 11 22 100 28 10,888 14

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

59 2 133 -6 34,447 -3

Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between Middle East and Asia/Pacifi c Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between Middle East and Asia/Pacifi c (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*(OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*



AIR ARABIA 129 8 302 -2 48,924 6

EMIRATES 1289 17 938 14 285,108 16

ETIHAD AIRWAYS 366 24 322 10 68,860 10

GULF AIR 182 -17 222 -13 44,857 -18

JAZEERA AIRWAYS 0 -100 0 -100 0 -100

MAHAN AIR 39 18 32 60 9240 43

OMAN AIR 75 14 192 9 31,300 13

QATAR AIRWAYS 528 40 460 18 107,354 27

ROYAL JORDANIAN 35 13 38 19 6608 18


271 12 195 13 65,515 16

Planned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between Middle East andPlanned capacity growth for top 10 carriers between Middle East andWestern Europe (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*Western Europe (OAG Data February 2010 versus February 2009)*



EMIRATES 821 8 506 5 167,460 8

ETIHAD AIRWAYS 204 19 192 32 40,536 25

QATAR AIRWAYS 298 13 280 12 63800 14

IRAN AIR 47 -2 64 3 13,414 -2

JAZEERA AIRWAYS 3 0 8 -33 1320 -33

MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES 51 24 108 15 20,366 24

ROYAL JORDANIAN 48 23 134 24 17,348 24

GULF AIR 84 -13 92 -18 18,490 -15

MAHAN AIR 18 100 26 100 5460 71


45 -13 41 -20 10,338 -17

*Data is for week of 1-7 February, 2010 against 2-8 February, 2009. Regions follow IATA defi nition. E-mail: [email protected]

Fuel Price IndexThe fuel index is based on the average price

of aviation fuel in fi ve key spot markets (Rotterdam, Singapore, New York, US Gulf and US West Coast)

EMIRATES SKYCARGO FUEL PRICE INDEXEMIRATES SKYCARGO FUEL PRICE INDEX

Index100 = 53.5 US cents per US gallon

AIRLINE ONTIME STATISTICS & DELAY CAUSES: NOVEMBER 2009AIRLINE ONTIME STATISTICS & DELAY CAUSES: NOVEMBER 2009

27 November37325 December

370

08 January408 20 November

380

RECRUITMENT


TO ADVERTISE HERE CONTACT:Fareed DuberyTel: +971 4 435 6339Email: [email protected]

MOVERS & SHAKERSRoyal Jet hires fi nancial specialistRichard Roth has joined luxury avia-tion operator, Royal Jet as chief fi -nancial offi cer. Roth, a fi nance expert and industry veteran has worked in a number of fi nancial positions in both ICI and Guinness, and was a member of easyJet’s executive management team. Through his own consultancy

fi rm, Consulting 4 Aviation he has worked with MaxJet, SpiceJet and NAS, amongst others.

Please email your ‘movers and shakers’ information to [email protected]

New faces at Etihad AirwaysFour new members have joined the Eti-had Airways team recently. Hareb Al Mu-hairy (pictured left) has been appointed as vice president, corporate communications, Vijay Poonoosamy (below right) has taken up the position of vice president, inter-national and public affairs, Kumar De

Silva joins as the airline’s country manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives, and Roberto ‘Bobby’ Hukom (below left) joins as country manager for the Philippines. Al Muhairy joined Etihad’s corporate affairs department in April 2009 and has been responsible for planning and implementing the media strategy for the airline in the Middle East. Poonoosamy’s overall responsibilities include establishing the

airline’s standing on the international arena, while De Silva, a Sri Lankan na-tional, will be based in Colombo to re-establish the airline’s offi ce and oversee its operations in Sri Lanka and the Mal-dives. Meanwhile, Hukom replaces Juan Torres and will be based in Manila. Previously, he was commercial manager for the Philippines for Gulf Air.

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Amadeus makes key appointmentsAmadeus, a provider of technology to the travel and tourism industry, has announced that its president & CEO David Jones will be succeeded in January 2011 by present deputy CEO and former CFO Luis Maroto. Ana de Pro will replace Maroto as the company’s new CFO. Prior to joining Amadeus, de Pro held senior management positions at Arthur Andersen, Metrovacesa and Sacyr Vallehermoso. In addition, Sabine Hansen Peck has been appointed vice president, Human Resources, responsible for group HR worldwide. Sabine joins Amadeus from Citigroup where she was head of Human Resources, Europe, Middle East & Africa for the Global Consumer Group.

Oman Air moves ahead with OmanisationOman Air has appointed Sheikh Ahmed Himyar Al Nabhani as chief offi cer support services. This move forms part of Oman Air’s commit-ment on its Omanisation programme of senior positions. Sheikh Al Nab-hani Nabhani has been with Oman

Air for the past 15 years and has worked his way up through the HR department.

Vistajet forms advisory boardVistajet has formed an advisory board, which will be led by its new chairman Robert Hersov. As an entrepreneur (he formed Marquis Jet Europe), Hersov has experience in both the private avia-tion market and in the luxury goods business. and Hersov’s family estab-lished one of South Africa’s biggest industrial and mining empires. Not only that, he worked directly with Rupert Murdoch at News Corporation in New York and with Johann Rupert as an ex-ecutive director at Richemont. The VistaJet advisory board will be comprised of members drawn from a broad spectrum of interests and across the geographies where VistaJet both currently operates and is seeking to expand.

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RECRUITMENT TO ADVERTISE HERE CONTACT:Jeremy BladonTel: +971 4 435 6241Email: [email protected]

EMIRATES SKYCARGO FUEL PRICE INDEX AIRLINE ONTIME STATISTICS & DELAY CAUSES: SEPTEMBER 2009

DIMOCORP. MIDDLE EAST LLC BIN HILAL ENTERPRISES

Large inventory of Boeing and Airbus parts

and components at our Abu Dhabi warehouse,

ready to be shipped immediately.

New - Overhauled - Repaired

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P.O. BOX 7349, ABU DHABI, UAE

TEL: +971 02 633 3728 / FAX: +971 02 621 4043

WWW.DIMO.COM

Providing worldwide aviation logistic support

© B

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IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION

PLEASE CONTACT:

NICK LOWESALES MANAGER, AVIATION BUSINESS

DIRECT: +971 4 435 6364

EMAIL: [email protected]

01 02 03 04 05

11162126 27 28 29 30

22 23 24 2517 18 112 13 14 15

06 07 08 09 10033022011


EVENTS LISTING

237

131333

22

A listing of trade shows, conferences and seminars relating to the Middle East aviation industryEVENTSEVENTS CALENDAR

24 25 FEBRUARY 2010Indian Business Aviation ExpoMIU Events, in association with lo-cal partners, is launching the fi rst dedi-cated business aviation event for the Indian market. The event will provide participants with a detailed insight into how business aviation in India is likely to develop and how to fully understand the characteristics and needs of this vast market. It will be the role of the Indian Business Aviation Expo 2010 (IBAE) to set the agenda for the business avia-tion market and to provide and agree best practice. VENUE: New DelhiEMAIL: [email protected]: www.miuevents.com/ibae-10

2 4 FEBRUARY 2010Middle East ExclusiveThe only duty free travel retail and luxu-ry goods exhibition in the greater Middle East region is fast approaching. It is recog-nised as being a valuable forum for forging existing and new business partnerships, and sourcing the latest premier goods and ranges for travel retailers and luxury goods providers. The organiser promises new companies and suppliers will be participat-ing this year as the Middle East remains one of the few bright spots in growth for the luxury retail sector.VENUE: DubaiEMAIL: [email protected]: www.middleeastexclusive.com

28 FEBRUARY 1 MARCH 2010Aircraft Interiors Middle EastBrought to you by the organiser of the Dubai Airshow, F&E Aerospace is holding its second Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME) event in Dubai. Located at the city’s Airport Expo, the two-day conference and exhibition is of use to operators seeking the ultimate in aircraft refi nement, connectivity and effi ciency, and gives suppliers direct access to airline decision-makers. The event will be co-located with MRO Middle East - F&E’s maintenance, repair and overhaul event.VENUE: DubaiEMAIL: [email protected]: www.aime.aero

9 10 FEBRUARY 2010Business Travel & Meetings ShowOnline visitor registration has opened for this London-based event and it could save you the standard entry fee of GBP30 (US$60) if you are quick to sign up. The website and the show have been revamped and updated in line with the show’s rebrand-ing to incorporate more MICE content. It is billed as Europe’s leading travel and meet-ings event, and could be well worth a visit if you are involved in the corporate/business jet and premium travel sector.VENUE: LondonEMAIL: [email protected]: www.businesstravelshow.co.uk

28 FEBRUARY 1 MARCH 2010MRO Middle EastThe MRO Middle East conference and exhibition is designed to offer the new-est and most innovative concepts and best practices, while encouraging the advancement of the airline and aircraft maintenance repair and overhaul indus-tries in the Middle East. Speakers will address the current and future forecast for this market, cost and staffi ng issues, supply chain trends, and a wide variety of other concerns. Opening remarks will be delivered by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.VENUE: DubaiEMAIL: Via websiteWEBSITE: www.aviationweek.com

2 7 FEBRUARY 2010Singapore AirshowThe Singapore Airshow is Asia’s larg-est aerospace and defence event, as well as one of the top three air shows in the world. In previous years, the event has attracted such names as ST Engineer-ing, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Rolls Royce International. The 2008 Singapore Airshow sealed more than US$13.4 billion worth of trade deals and attracted 30,000 trade visitors, and, impressively, more than 90,000 public visitors.VENUE: SingaporeEMAIL: [email protected]: www.singaporeairshow.com

3 4 MARCHAerospace & Defence Training ShowMiddle East Aerospace and Defence event organisers F&E Aerospace have teamed with specialist simulation and training providers Halldale Media to produce the ADTS event, which takes place in March. ADTS will feature an exhibition of the latest training and simulation offerings for regional airlines and air forces and will incorporate two simultaneous conferences. The event is supported by some key industry players including, Emirates and the AACO.VENUE: DubaiEMAIL: [email protected]: www.adts.aero

23 25 MARCH 2010Passenger Terminal ExpoThe global event for 2010 will be held in Brussels, Belgium and will bring together more than 200 suppliers for airport and airline teams to meet. The conference agenda will include more than 200 speakers to discuss a number of subjects including terminal design; management and planning; baggage handling; security; border control and check-in, amongst others. As usual, networking events will include one-to-one meeting opportunities, dinners and cocktail evenings.VENUE: BrusselsEMAIL: [email protected]: www.passengerterminal-expo.com

48

28FEBRUARY

MRO Middle East begins in Dubai

"Please visit us at Booth No 332, MRO Middle East 2010, Dubai from Feb 28th - March 1st 2010"

Aviation Business - Feb 2010

Documents

Transcript of Aviation Business - Feb 2010