Political unrest in the Middle East has severely disrupted corporate and luxury aviation in the region with pilots struggling to fly and refuel safely.
Private jet travellers, especially when flying within the Middle East, tend to use smaller jets that have a limited range, making it necessary to stop and refuel.
"We are based in Istanbul and we had to refuel in Sharm El Sheikh to get here," said the pilot of one of the smaller corporate jets on display at the Middle East Business Aviation show in Dubai this week.
Previously, he would have stopped in the more convenient locations of Beirut or Cairo to refuel. He also said he avoids flying over Syrian and Iranian airspace. Flying via Egypt adds time and money to the trip.
It costs US$600 (Dh2,203) per hour to keep a small jet in the air and bigger jets cost many hundreds of dollars more. Ghassan Hamdan, the chief executive of NasJet, the largest luxury jet carrier in the Middle East, according to their website, agreed that regional business aviation had been affected by the instability.
"What happened in Egypt in 2011, 2012 and what is happening today in Syria and in Lebanon has impacted negatively," he said.
Before the unrest there, Egypt used to account for 25 per cent of NasJet's business.
"We lost that totally," said Mr Hamdan.
"In Egypt, many of those who used to own [or were part-owners of] aircraft left Egypt totally and they are scattered. [Those] who are still there, many of them are hesitant to express their wealth openly. They decided to get local flights … They prefer to keep a low profile."
Mr Hamdan said that NasJet was able to counterbalance its loss of business in parts of the Arab world by diversifying its range of products. Rather than just managing corporate jets for owners, the company now also provides repair and maintenance services.
Mike Berry, the Middle East managing director for ExecuJet, said that he envisages a "slow recovery" taking place. While the company has expanded its maintenance and ground handling businesses over the past two years, he said about the charter business that "there is just no trend compared to two years ago".
He explained: "One month it's great and then it's quiet. Charter demand is just not sustainable at the moment. We think it's maybe got to do with some of the situations in the Middle East; people don't want to fly on a regular basis like they were."
lgutcher@thenational.ae
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
The%20Mother%20
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
