UAE air traffic hits new heights despite turmoil

COUNTRY’S AVIATION POLICY YIELDING SIGNIFICANT RETURNS

pletion of various projects in the port areas.

Craig Plumb, director of research for Jones Lang Lasalle, told Gulf News that real estate market for residential units will witness further price drops since the rents and sales prices of this sector had not yet bottomed out.

“2012 will be worse for Abu Dhabi ’ s p r o p e r t y market. The prices are expected to fall further in order to meet the oversupply of units, particularly with the completion of the new housing units,” added Plumb.

Offices

As for office prices, they will have to drop further in Abu Dhabi in order to attract tenants, said Plumb.

Meanwhile, analysts said that Dubai’s market was likely to bounce back in 2012.

“Rental and sales prices for residential units have fallen to the bottom in Dubai. This year will witness stability in the prices and a recovery to the market,” Plumb said.

The report showed that rents have particularly stabilised at the Dubai Marina, the Greens, Al Barsha and downtown Dubai with declines of between 5 per cent and 15 per cent in areas such as Discovery Gardens, Jumeirah Lake Towers and Silicon Oasis. Dubai Air traff ic movement in the UAE recorded a 7.6 per cent jump in 2011 over the previous year despite global challenges.

The country’s airports reported steady increases in traff ic during the year, according to data released by the Shaikh Zayed Air Navigation Centre.

The number of flights in December topped 61 , 197, with an average of 1 ,9 74 f l i ghts per day, t he UAE Genera l Civ i l Av i a t i o n Authority ( GCAA) s a i d yesterday in a statement.

It added that Dubai Int e r nat i onal Airport occupied the top slot with 28, 223 f l i ghts and 1 3, 233 overf l i g ht s . Abu Dhabi International Airport recorded 8,686 flights.

Capacity expansion

“The f i g u r e s s u p p o r t t h e ba s i s f o r e x pa n d - i ng both Dubai I nternat i onal Airport and al s o Abu Dhabi as Emirates and Etihad l ook for new growth opportunities and it’s likely that this sort of strong performance will provide a greater emphasis to speed up development for additional airport capacity at DWC-AL Maktoum I n t e r n a t i o n a l Airport too,” said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at Strategicaero Research.

UAE airports are likely t o e x p e r i e n c e f u r t h e r growth in traff ic, according to Ahmad.

“For 2012, we are likely to see the continued upward t raj ectory of both airplane movements and passenger traff i c as new jets are inducted and new routes opening up — not j ust from l egacy carriers like Emirates, but also at the other end of the scale where the likes of flydubai have been expanding at a near meteoric pace,” he told Gulf News.

M e a n w h i l e , a c c o r d - i ng t o t he Shaikh Zayed Ai r Nav i ga t i o n Ce n t r e report, Ja nuary 2011 saw t h e h i g h e s t p e r c e n t - a ge i ncrease — 1 0. 3 per cent — i n ai r t raff i c, t he GCAA stated.

“What’s clear from these annual f igures is that despite the global economic pressures, t he UAE’S i ntrinsic support and development of its aviation policy is yielding signif icant economic a nd busi ness

Breakdown

Statistical Summary - 2011

2011 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Total The remarkable increase in air traffic movement in UAE is attributed to the prosperity of business and tourism in the country. [The] UAE possesses all necessary factors to attract business people and tourists from around the globe.”

Saif Mohammad Al Suwaidi Director-general of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)

returns for t he country, especially to emirates like Dubai, where Emirate s has been growing rapidly for more than a decade,” Ahmad said.

Meanwhile, the distribution of air traff ic over the other UAE airports was as follows: 5, 522 flights at Sharjah International Airport; 186 at Fujairah I nternational Airport; 84 at Al Ain Airport; 555 at Ras Al Khaimah Airport, and 495 flights at the DWC-AL

Flight movement 57227 51431 58553 55842 58153 56291 58620 56100 57773 61705 60497 61197

693389

Maktoum I n t e r n a t i o n a l Airport, according to the GCAA.

“The r e marka b l e i n - crease in air traff ic movement in the UAE is attributed to the prosperity of business and tourism i n the country,” Saif Mohammad Al Suwaidi, directorgeneral of the GCAA, said in a statement.

“[ The] UAE possesses all necessary factors to attract business people and tourists from around the globe.”

Agreements

He a d d e d t h a t t h e a d o p t e d p o l i c y o f t h e UAE government of encouraging the signing of Air Service Agreements on the basis of open skies with countries i n the region and across the world, and providing a competitive environment for airl i nes, t ranslated i nto an increased number of regi stered companies and a surge in air traff ic.