Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Dubai and the Aviation 100 Middle East & Africa award winners

A year ago, at Airline Economics’ Growth Frontiers Dubai conference, Monarch Airlines closed its doors; this year the fall of Primera Air was the talk of the first day. There is a growing sense that the downturn is already upon us, with the weakest airlines starting to show signs of stress. But this is early days and many are bullish that this won’t be a steep downturn, more a gentle correction. The fact that the Monarch and the Air Berlin aircraft were very quickly absorbed into the system, as well as the continuing prevalence of “hot” money for funding aircraft and airlines are enjoying bids north of 20 participants for every RFP, there is a definite delay in the market while it works out if a downturn is permanent or a blip. Reports have emerged over cocktails that winning bids on widebody aircraft are $15million over “sensible” bidders demonstrating that building market share and putting cash to work in tangible assets remains as popular as ever. Lease rate factors have also been seen to dip below 0.45, which is a concern when anything below 0.55 makes it very difficult to ensure a return on that investment. The market now doesn’t make a lot of economic sense to the old guard here, who have predicted a downturn for the past three years without any realization, which is breeding doubts in where the market will turn next.

Despite the market challenges, the delegation turned out in force to celebrate the achievements of the local industry players at the Aviation 100 Middle East & Africa awards at a glittering gala dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. The winners are listed below but the full detail of each of the deal, including comments from the companies concerned will be featured in the next issue of Airline Economics.