The Middle East and Indian markets have continuously served as a transportation hub connecting our region to the rest of the world as well as driving in country growth, as in the case of India. This region experienced significant growth over the past few decades, driven by various factors including economic development, increased air travel demand, airline expansion, and strategic geographical location.

To address growing demand, we have seen airlines and governments focus on managing their finances effectively through leaseback, an arrangement in which the seller of an asset (the airline) leases back the same asset from the purchaser of the asset, known as the lessor.

This is important for our industry because the leaseback arrangement provides airlines with the opportunity to generate income from their product without the upfront investment required for ownership. Some of the largest lessors are based outside of the region, who account for approximately 70% of the total aircraft leasing market which is estimated to be worth $279 billion and with over 8,000 aircraft in service or on order.

The last few years has seen ‘local’ lessors offer leaseback to their customers which allows the airlines to try and keep the lease ‘in country’ or ‘in region’ and save on valuable foreign exchange as well.

Another big shift for the aviation industry in the region is the rise in demand for ‘local’ training and certification. With this investment in technology, we are witnessing the growth in acquisition of state-of-the-art flight simulators and training devices. These are crucial to ensure quality training, and local certification of pilots and crew. This allows carriers to manage this process in-house and save on flying crew to the OEM’s bases for training.

Expeditors has a local focus in the Middle East. We maintain dedicated staff who are experts in this field. For more information about the aviation industry in the Middle East, contact your local Expeditors representative today.

Want more from our series? Read our first blog in this series here!