Deena Kamel Yousef Dubai
AIRBUS Group is looking beyond the big three Gulf airlines to capture growth in the Middle East and north Africa as it predicts other carriers will account for about two-thirds of total sales in the region by 2032.
With a “bonanza” of orders in recent years from Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways unlikely to be repeated anytime soon, Airbus was targeting smaller airlines from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco, said Habib Fekih, the president of Airbus Group Middle East.
“The big three can maybe grab 30 to 35 percent of the forecast fleet demand, but the rest has to go somewhere else,” Fekih said. “I don’t see an airline ordering hundreds of aircraft every year.”
Airbus has relied on large orders from the Gulf carriers in past years, with Emirates by far its biggest buyer of the A380 superjumbo and Qatar the launch customer for the A350. The manufacturer wants to sell about 2 000 planes between 2013 and 2032 in the region, which has become a major global aviation hub at the crossroads of global flight paths.
Saleh Al Jaser, its director-general, said earlier this month that among prospective customers was Saudi Arabian Airlines, which is looking to expand its fleet to 200 aircraft by 2020 from 119.
Fehih said that the airline had a point-to-point business model suited to single-aisle planes in the A320 family as well as wide-bodies such as the A330 or A350. – Bloomberg