JEDDAH – Middle East will continue to hold significant purchasing power in business jet market this year as traditional markets in Europe and North America look to bounce back. Brazil's Embrarer have reshuffled regional operations in a bid to focus on the key market. The Middle East used to be combined with Europe and Africa. It is now placed alongside Asia-Pacific. Sales in Europe and North America slowed, business jet executives have said, in the fallout of the financial crisis that hit the global market in 2008. Since then the importance of Middle Eastern buying power has increased. “The target for that particular region (Middle East & Asia Pacific) numbers well into the 25 plus units across the range,” said Peter Walker, Embrarers Middle East & Asia Pacific Vice-President for Sales & Marketing. Embrarer is forecasting 11 of these units to come from the Middle East. “We have forecast for 2 lineages (1000e's) in the region and the rest would be the 650, which go for the $33 million mark,” Walker told the media on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Air Expo. Embrarers lineage 1000e is valued at $55 million including options. It is their largest executive jet and can carry up to 19 passengers. Walker said Embrarer is also in talks with a number of training institutions in the region that are interested in purchasing some of its smaller aircraft each valued between $4.5 and $9 million. Beyond the UAE, Walker said Oman is a “burgeoning” market and that there is “signs of interest and recovery” in Pakistan. Dassault Aviation sold nine of its Falcon aircraft in the Middle East last year, pushing its business aviation fleet of in the region to almost 70. “We are on a trend to increase our fleet by 10 percent. That is what we managed to do last year,” said Renauld Cloatre, Dassault's Dubai-based Falcon sales director, speaking at the Air Expo show in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. “This year, we are into very strong negotiations on many different projects. It's very good. We are very happy.” The region is home to some of the world's largest Falcon 7X operators, including Saudia Private Aviation (SPA), which unusually chose not to attend Abu Dhabi Air Expo this year, and Wallan Aviation, also of Saudi Arabia. “SPA participated in our success in 2013 because of the visibility they give us,” said Cloatre. “We have so many clients now who have had the chance to discover the Falcon 7X through SPA. In our Middle East fleet, very few aircraft are available for charter, and those are the four belonging to SPA. They have been helping us with a strong partnership. We can see their activities growing. I presume that they would get more aircraft under management or ownership. I assume their fleet will increase. We have more demand than there are available aircraft.” According to the French manufacturer, it delivered more than 30 Falcon aircraft to customers in the Middle East region over the past five years, nearly doubling the regional Falcon fleet to 69 aircraft. Dassault is exhibiting its Falcon 7X flagship at the Air Expo, while also promoting the new Falcon 5X model, which is due to enter service in 2017. The Middle East accounts for around 40 percent of worldwide Falcon sales. Dassault has authorized service center, a spares distribution depot and a regional sales office in Dubai. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the company has another authorized service center and a technical office. — SG/Agencies
