Match aviation growth and safety to sustain hub edge

“We look at the aviation sector as an important economic catalyst and as a tool for supporting the culture of communication and understanding between peoples,” HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani said on Monday. He was delivering the opening address to welcome the participants attending International Air Transport Association’s 70th AGM and World Air Transport Summit in Doha to mark 100 years of commercial aviation. Sheikh Abdullah also pointed out that while Arab carriers transported just 3% of travellers in the world some two decades ago, they now account for around 12%.

The rapid expansion of the Gulf Co-operation Council’s airports has placed Doha and Dubai as the new hubs for global aviation, with the Gulf being an ideal location between Europe, North America and the Asia.

The now-defunct Doha International Airport’s passenger growth jumped 12% in February to almost reach the 2mn milestone, underlining Doha’s increasing importance as a global travel hub. The Dubai International Airport handled around 5.1mn in February, up 11.4% from a year earlier.

The fast-growing Gulf is crucial to the success of global aviation, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Driven by the Gulf boom, Middle East carriers are expected to contribute a record $2.2bn to the industry’s expected global profit of $18n in 2014.

There are, however, growing concern that the Gulf’s airports are expanding too quickly for demand to catch up, and that Dubai, especially, could be over-estimating its ability to become a global hub. Also, with between 40% and 60% of airspace in the Gulf reserved for military use, “airspace congestion is a real and rising problem,” according to IATA.

Qatar’s new state-of-the-art Hamad International Airport is estimated to receive 28mn passengers annually. With Middle East airports expected to be handling nearly 450mn passengers per year by 2020, constant upgrades to the security system are needed to deliver a better travellers’ experience, says IATA.

True, the GCC states are investing millions of dollars in technology and system upgrades to ensure seamless and safer passenger as well as freight movement. In fact, the safest airlines in the world can be found in the Gulf as most national carriers enjoy either a seven or six-star rating issued by Airlineratings.com.

IATA chief Tony Tyler on Monday reiterated the industry’s commitment to working together and with governments in the constant pursuit of improved safety. “Flying is incredibly safe. And we are determined to make it safer”, he said. But, “the loss of Malaysian Airlines MH370 points us to an immediate need. A large commercial airliner going missing without a trace for so long is unprecedented in modern aviation. It must not happen again”.

Investing in globally-accepted security measures and technology to ensure the safety of passengers should be made the top priority of the Gulf aviation sector. Longer-term, the sustainability the “Gulf aviation hub advantage” will depend a lot on how key players can find the right balance to factor in technology, cost and security to ensure the seamless flow of passengers as well as freight.