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Emirates announced the largest single order to Airbus ever by an airline and arguably the biggest order in the history of aviation, with a $31bn order for 120 Airbus A350 XWBs and 11 A380s and $3.9bn for 12 Boeing 777-300 ERs.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways is spending $13.5bn on 30 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners and is taking options on a further 30, as well as buying 27 more 777s with options on another five.
Big orders
Airbus said it now expects 30 per cent of its record annual order book to come from the Middle East. Officials told a press conference that the region's carriers had an excellent record for past business and that Airbus was not worried about becoming over dependent on a few customers.
Both Dubai and Doha are also investing heavily in new airport infrastructure to act as hub bases for their new fleets, and both cities are building completely new airports on green field sites that will handle expansion in the next decade.
Skeptics wonder if there is room for so many airlines. Gulf Air is still based in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi's Etihad is expanding rapidly and will also soon have a new home airport.
Ten years ago Emirates' ambitions for a fleet of 100 aircraft were dismissed with polite smiles and yet today there are 111 aircraft flying and more arriving every month. You can fairly confidently project the demand curve forward and see that the orders placed this week make good commercial sense.
Who wins?
Whether Qatar Airways, Etihad and perhaps Gulf Air can also succeed at the same time is perhaps a more reasonable question. Only Emirates serves a regional trading hub and a major tourism destination.
However, next week Emirates ground handler Dnata will commence operations for its 40th customer, Silverjet, an all-business class service from London. So new competitors trying to win over the Gulf air passenger continue to emerge.
Business history says that at some point there will be consolidation in the sector. But maybe the Middle East is just destined to become a dominant player in global aviation.
For economics is on the side of the Middle East carriers, which can afford the latest, most efficient and most profitable aircraft; do not have to pay employment taxes; can pay modest salaries to the kind of bright, young staff travellers like to serve them; and operate day and night out of modern hub airports. To date this has been a winning formula.
See also:
Latest Dubai Airshow news
Qatar Airways predicts planes powered by natural gas and electricity
Video: Dubai Airshow Takes Off
Peter J. Cooper
