The buzz is back in the air as Dubai hosts premier event

They are the truly memorable events, the ones which inexorably turn up the anticipation, hit a peak, then continue to reverberate in the consciousness long after the immediate impact has receded.

They have that special indefinable ingredient you can't pin down yet can't avoid.

It is the difference between watching Brazil play football and almost any other side. The difference between being behind the wheel of a Ferrari and revving up a family saloon.

The buzz is there for car enthusiasts at the Monaco grand prix or Frankfurt motor show. It affects film aficionados when Cannes or the Oscars come around.

For the committed race-goers it could be Kentucky for "The Derby" or Royal Ascot in June. For the aviation industry it is Farnborough, Paris and inevitably Dubai, now confirmed as the third biggest of the air shows but for many the biggest by far.

Dubai 2003, the flagship exhibition of the Gulf and a shop window for the aviation world's movers and shakers to display their wares, network, sound out the opposition or cement deals, opens on December 7 and the excitment is palpable.

While business defines the outline of the show it means and involves so much more.
With the Gulf bucking the trend and actually enjoying an upturn in aviation business – in contrast to much of the rest of the world – this show is the place for the real wheeler-dealers in the industry to be. Which is why so many have responded, with the likes of the US sending a huge delegation after many of its companies withdrew two years ago.

What is true for the US is also true for the rest of the world and international firms have flocked to participate in this year's event.

Significantly, however, and it is perhaps a sign of the present climate, Middle East exhibitors will be at this year's show in greater numbers than ever before. Some 140 have signed up and Kuwait is sending its first exhibitor.

Business aside, the show is also very much a social occasion.

So while the 85 aircraft especially flown in for the event are put through their paces and the chalets throng with the bustle and murmur of queries, negotiations and technical detail there will be so much more going on.

Big corporations, from Boeing to Emirates Bank, the airlines such as Royal Jet and Qatar Airways, premier marques such as Gulfstream and ExecuJet and the military top brass will try to outdo each on the entertainment front.

What is certain is that the eighth Dubai Air Show is bound to be a winner for business and for Dubai. Certainly the air show is now seen as a barometer for the growth of the travel business in the Middle East.

When he inaugurated the 2001 Air Show, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, said: "Our unwavering aim is to make this the best place to do business, the top tourist destination and transport hub of the region and the undisputed commercial and communications capital of the Middle East."

Given the progress the air show has shown his aim is well advanced.

The Trade and Fairs Exhibition, a local company which organises the air show every two years and put on two smaller shows at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the 1980s, has played a very important role.

Certainly it was the success of the early shows that provided the impetous to hold a regular air show sponsored by the Dubai Government, Department of Civil Aviation and the Emirates Group.

So Arab Air was renamed the Dubai Air Show, which was first staged in 1989. It proved a success attracting 200 exhibitors.

Despite the Gulf crisis and war in 1990-91, the 1989 Dubai Air Show made such a great impression on international airline manufacturers that many signed up to attend the subsequent air show staged in November, 1991.

In the aftermath of the Gulf War, many manufacturers, particularly makers of fighter jets, were eager to flock to the region. And so the number of exhibitors doubled to 400 from 40 countries and 67 aircraft on display, an increase on the previous figure of 25.

The number of exhibitors increased from 450 in 1993 to 500 in the 1995, 1997 and 1999 trade shows, coming from countries in all five continents of the world.

After 1993, the Dubai Air Show became more aviation and aerospace-based, rather than military.

In 1989, the number of visitors was 7,000, increasing to 20,000 in 1993, 25,000 in 1995 and just under 30,000 in 2001.


The 2001 Air Show took place in the wake of September 11, which resulted in a decline in the number of exhibitors to 450.

The mood was soon reversed when Emirates airline placed an aircraft order worth $15.60 billion and officials in the Department of Civil Aviation spoke of new plans involving $2.5 billion to add a third terminal to Dubai's international airport.

But there were plenty of other deals, including one between Emirates and the CAE company of Canada to build a Gulfstream business jet training centre in Dubai at a cost of $100 million, the first outside the US to offer Gulfstream training. The buzz is back.