The private jet market in UAE is predicted to see the number of aircraft doubling by 2025 to reach 200 aircraft from about 100 private airplanes currently, driven by a strong influx of wealth, along with the government’s focus on making Dubai the private jet capital of the region, market players and research firms said.
The global private jet market is projected to reach $39.84 billion in 2025 from an estimated $25.87 billion in 2021, with the GCC region accounting for a significant share of it.
“Our estimate is that there is currently a base fleet of over 100 private airplanes in the UAE. With the sustained ongoing demand, we anticipate that the fleet would double by 2025,” Paras Dhamecha, founder and managing director of Dubai-based Empire Aviation Group, told Arabian Business.
Dhamecha said the GCC has been a relatively large focus market for private aviation for many years due to the region’s high level of disposable wealth.
“The region offers an outstanding aviation regulatory environment and world class aviation infrastructure, with the talent, professional services and technical support,” said the founder of Empire Aviation, which is among the leading private jet operators in the region.
Dhamecha said this enabled operators such as Empire to deliver services across the Middle East and other fast developing regions, as also from India to Africa and Asia for business aviation.
The fast expanding UAE private jet market has also been attracting new players to the region, with Enthral Aviation – currently operating in India and Canada – being the latest private jet operator which announced plans to enter the UAE market.
“The business aviation market is growing at an exponential rate, with the Middle East and Asia emerging as among the fastest growing regions for the sector,” Tapish Khivensra, managing director of Enthral Aviation, told Arabian Business.
UAE topped the table in private jet charter services in the Middle East region by revenue in 2021, followed by Saudi Arabia.
Qatar, Oman and Bahrain are also fast emerging in this space.
Sector experts said the presence of a growing high net-worth individual (HNI) clientele in the region has had a positive effect on the demand-side dynamics of the market – both in the UAE and the wider GCC region.
The associated ownership benefits, in terms of evolving fractional ownership or private jet card programs have also been a decisive factor promoting the growth of the market in the region.
Dubai is the 29th most popular city in the world for ultra-wealthy residents, after more than 2,000 high-net-worth individuals moved to the emirate in the first six months of 2021, according to a New World Wealth study.
The study estimated the city’s population of HNIs rising 3.8 percent to 54,000 from 52,000 in December 2020.
Private jet industry executives said the uptick in private jet and charter business in Dubai, witnessed in the pandemic period, has been continuing strongly into 2022 as well, with HNIs and corporate top honchos preferring travel by charter flights due to safety issues.
According to available data, the Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub in Dubai South recorded a 336 percent increase in the movements of private jets during the first quarter of 2021, reaching 4,904 compared to 1,460 in the first quarter of 2020 and 1,676 a year earlier.
DC Aviation Al-Futtaim (DCAF), another Dubai-based business aviation company, posted a 25 percent increase in private and business jet activity in the first quarter of last year.
A report by Mordar Intelligence said the Middle East and African charter jet services market was anticipated to record a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 3 percent during 2022-27.
“The preference for luxury travel has been growing rapidly in the Middle Eastern region, primarily due to the presence of many HNIs in this region. This is encouraging charter service providers to expand their fleet to cover new routes in response to the rising demand and serve a larger market, said Mordar, a market intelligence and advisory firm.
Dhamecha said a cost rationalisation in private aircraft operations would help to see a dramatic increase in the market size of the industry in the region.
“Besides, we have always believed in the need for a constant education process to address people’s common perception that private jets are an unattainable luxury without realising that, in fact, it can be very affordable and good value, in relative terms,” said the Empire Aviation chief.
The prominent players in the Middle-East and Africa Charter Jet Services market include Empire Aviation Group, Royal Jet, ExecuJet, Qatar Executive (Qatar Airways), and Emirates Executive (Emirates Group), according to Mordar.
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