Middle East airlines to impact Asia, USA most?

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Tuesday, 22 June 2010

UBS Investment Research, which has looked at Middle East carriers' competitiveness in a global context, says the region's airlines plan to add 83 aircraft to their fleets in 2010 (about 8.3 per cent of worldwide deliveries) and 50 (4.9 per cent) in 2011.

It says that although Europe remains the largest market for Middle East carriers: "We expect long-haul capacity to be increasingly placed outside Europe."

And it adds: "We believe Middle East carriers may be looking to place materially greater capacity in markets other than Europe, given the more attractive opportunities. In particular, we see Africa, India, North America and Asia as growth markets for Middle East carriers, which currently account for only about eight per cent of global passenger and cargo traffic."

The report also says American and Asian carriers may be more under threat (from the competition) than Europe's. "European flag carriers will likely continue to face a Middle East threat, but see Asia and the Americas as under a greater near-term threat," it said.