The scale and impact of the MEBA 2008 show must have removed any remaining doubts that today the Middle East is business aviation’s hottest marketplace. Admittedly, there is now talk of some pending slowdown of the manic economic growth that has gripped the Arabian Gulf states in recent years, but this sentiment did not manifest itself among the new customers flocking to business aviation and the service providers eager to bring them into the fold.
The second full-blown MEBA show– held in Dubai from November 16 to 18–was roughly three times the size of the January 2007 event. It drew 250 exhibitors from 30 countries and featured a packed static display with more than 70 aircraft. As of press time, the visitor count was more than 5,500. To put this in context, Europe’s second EBACE show in 2002 drew 219 exhibitors and just over 4,800 visitors. This would suggest that the Middle East, where the business aviation industry today is still far less developed than Europe’s was six years ago, has every bit as much potential as the more mature market in Europe.
