Airbus Trims Dassault Aviation Stake, Grey Charter and Business Aircraft Operators Surge in Middle East

The perennial issue of illegal or grey charter continues to infuriate established commercial operators around the Middle East.This practice – defined as when a private aircraft owner/ operator takes money for flying people when that owner and/or operator has no legal right to do so – is more active in the Middle East than in other parts of the world. Some estimates put the tally at between 20% and 40% of business aircraft flights at any given time, depending on the time of the year.

In the dusty expanse of what may one day be the world’s biggest aviation gateway, the fixed-base operation of DC Aviation Al-Futtaim stands in virtual splendid isolation next to the runway. The joint venture between the German charter operator and local conglomerate is one of just a handful of buildings at Dubai’s new Al Maktoum airport. Beyond it, to the horizon, the envisioned Dubai World Central mega-development that will envelop the airport remains scrubby, flat desert.

The widely held belief is that the Middle East has a thriving business aviation sector largely kept aloft by vastly wealthy individuals and corporations who are almost entirely immune to wider economic woes. After all, petrodollars continue to gush out despite the fall in the price of crude oil.

Of course, that is an overly simplistic analysis of the regional trends in business aviation. It may be home to the largest concentration of VIP airliners on the planet, but that does not mean the Middle East exists in glorious, moneyed isolation.