Seven years after the chaos of 9/11, air travel has again reached record levels in the U.S, Europe and Asia. Despite increasing fears of a near-term recession in the U.S. caused in part by a dramatic surge in the U.S. dollar price of crude oil, international business aviation travel is also on the rise.
At this year’s International Operators Conference (IOC) in San Antonio, Shane O’Hare, CEO of Abu Dhabi-based Royal Jet, said, “Our research points to a 40-percent annual increase in the Middle East business aviation sector in the next five years, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE driving the momentum.” Also from Dubai, United Aviation Services marketing manager Abdul Charafeddin confirmed a steady increase in business traffic, much of which he attributed to “blue-chip companies such as IBM, AT&T, JP Morgan Chase and others we often see here. More big international companies and brands have an office or a representative here now as well. Mainly the traffic we see arrives from the U.S. and Europe, mostly long-range aircraft like the Gulfstream IV and V and the Global Express.” O’Hare says that much of Royal Jet’s traffic is focused around the Boeing BBJ.
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