The world’s aerospace industry could use a morale boost, and it might just get it at the 2009 Dubai Air Show (November 15 to 19) at the end of a year that has brought little but austerity and uncertainty. The Middle East has been a strong generator of growth over the past decade, and the market’s potential to revive otherwise sluggish sales in the aerospace sector is more important now than ever before. While it has not been untouched by the continuing global economic downturn, the region is bucking the trend of stagnation in air traffic demand and remains an important customer for new defense technology.
Latest figures from the International Air Transport Association reveal the Middle East to be the only region of the world experiencing an increase in air traffic demand. At the end of the second quarter, the growth rate stood at 12.9 percent for the region, with airlines there increasing airliner capacity by just over 15 percent. As of press time, full statistics for the third quarter were not yet available, but month-on-month figures for July and August suggested the Middle East airlines were continuing to buck a gloomy global trend of meager traffic recovery but continued squeezing of profits by rising costs.
