Contributor - Middle East

Peter Shaw-Smith

Strong charter demand has continued&nbsp;from early summer 2021 through 2022&nbsp;with the majority of demand coming from the Middle East and Africa, a Dubai, UAE-based Comlux official said.

 


“Our charter fleet composition is mainly VIP airliners,&nbsp;BBJs and ACJs, and most of our charterers are royal families, heads of state, governments, and groups requiring luxury travel experiences,” Oliver Hewson, Comlux sales director for the&nbsp;Middle East and Africa region&nbsp;told AIN.

 


“The fourth quarter of the year has been excellent for charter with huge global events scheduled; COP27, the G20 summit, and the FIFA World Cup, not to mention the Maldives season starting,” he said.

 


East Asia is also opening up,&nbsp;in terms of Covid restrictions being lifted, and the company received a surge in inquiries for destinations such as Thailand and Indonesia. “In the coming months, we are adding more charter aircraft—the world’s first ACJ TwoTwenty and a new Praetor 600—and we will be focused on completing our new maintenance hangar at Al Maktoum International Airport (OMDW) in Dubai,” he said. “Our Middle East outlook for 2023 is extremely positive, so we continue to invest here, and expect this to be a primary market for the new ACJ TwoTwenty product we have developed with Airbus.” Comlux expects to deliver the aircraft to Dubai’s Five Hotel and Resorts in January.

 


The post-Covid&nbsp;period, which took off from June 2021 onwards,&nbsp;has resulted in record charter demand. The company had to hire more crew and bolster resources in operations, customer service, and sales&nbsp;to cope with demand, Hewson said.

 


“Covid was tough for the VIP market due to the worldwide restrictions on passenger flights,” he said. “However, we were able to perform some specialist charter thanks to the long-range and payload capacities of our BBJ and ACJ fleet. It was a perfect time to refresh and upgrade some of our fleet at Comlux Completions, from which we are now reaping the benefits because clients are so impressed by the quality of our cabins.”

 


Comlux has not experienced any major slot availability issues at Dubai International (OMDB), aside from the usual peak hours for morning departures and late-night arrivals. Hewson confirmed anecdotal evidence that points to an around 70-30 split in bizjet movements between OMDW and OMDB. “Both airports offer excellent FBO facilities, but most charter demand is for OMDW, mainly due to more cost-effective aircraft parking,” he said. “The market knows that charter aircraft tend to be parked in OMDW, and it now has state-of-the-art infrastructure, so OMDW has taken the lion’s share of charter movements.”

 


Completion of construction on Comlux's&nbsp;OMDW hangar is expected to take place in 2023. Hewson said the hangar would enable the company to perform line maintenance and VIP cabin repairs for customers in the region, increase efficiencies and enhance service offerings to the niche VIP airliner operator sector.

 


“We have deep expertise in VIP cabin completions, thanks to our completions center in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it makes complete sense to have a satellite base in the Middle East, especially somewhere as active and business-conducive as Dubai,” he concluded.

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