The private aviation sector is set to grow by at least 12 percent through to 2014, according to the chairman of the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA).
Ali Ahmed Al-Naqabi, who is also the founding member of MEBAA, said that the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates account for 70 percent of the private aviation sector in the Middle East North Africa region.
Al-Naqabi was speaking during the third edition of the Middle East Business Aviation Conference (MEBAC) yesterday.
The conference was held under the patronage of Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Muhammad, president of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) at the Jeddah Hilton.
Al-Naqabi said the expected 12 percent growth would come on the back of the Kingdom’s strong economy driven by the private and government sectors.
“We are going through several economic changes that highlight the importance of promoting business aviation among the top echelons of major organizations and companies,” he said.
“The opportunities are very open, and the demand is really high to boost more investments in Saudi Arabia. Saudi has a big market with over 500 private aircraft based here. A total of 140 of these aircraft are registered in Saudi Arabia. Saudi is number one, while in Dubai we have about 130 registered aircraft, and less than 500 aircraft based there,” he said. Al-Naqabi told Arab News that Dubai was now attracting more private aircraft, especially after the Arab Spring. “A lot of Syrian, Libyan and Egyptian private aviation companies started moving to Dubai due to the Arab Spring, so it is affecting Dubai positively. The Arab Spring is a positive step in the right direction. I think we will witness more companies in this sector in Syria, Egypt and Libya due to the Arab Spring,” he said.
“Business aviation in the Middle East is going through unprecedented changes. At the forefront of this change is the Saudi Arabian market, which is one of the largest and most important in our industry. With MEBAC, we aim to bring our industry together including regulators, operators and manufacturers, to work collectively and proactively to ensure we understand the problems and issues our members face,” he said.
Alaa Salman, head of the partnership team at GACA, confirmed that the aviation sector in the Kingdom has grown by 14 percent over the past four years.
Private aviation set for huge leap
