Study Predicts Dubai’s Preeminence by 2015
Dubai’s second international airport, Dubai World Central, stands nearly ready to serve its first passengers. (Photo: Dubai World Central)
Dubai’s second international airport, Dubai World Central, stands nearly ready to serve its first passengers. (Photo: Dubai World Central)

A new Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) aviation study predicts that the Gulf region will see 250 million passengers using its airports each year by 2020 and that annual Middle East aircraft movements will reach 2.3 million five years later, when the number of people living within range of a single flight reaches some 7 billion. The study, titled “The World Via Gulf” and published for Dubai’s The Airport Show, scheduled to take place from May 6 to 8, concludes that the region’s aviation industry will create 294,000 jobs over the next two decades.