Dubai Air Show Highlights Importance Of The Mid-East

Two days ago, the Dubai Air Show concluded, underscoring the growing importance of the mid-East to both civil and military aerospace.

Begun in 1989 with just 200 exhibitors and 25 aircraft, the show is now the fastest growing of its kind in a world where global and regional shows abound. Most people are familiar with the alternating venues of Le Bourget in Paris on odd years and Farnborough outside London on even years. These shows command the global stage and are beset by government and military delegations, airlines, OEM’s, suppliers, investors and the public.

However, Dubai, and more recently Singapore, have become central to those same groups due to the focus on the importance of their regions to passenger growth and geographic defense and security concerns.

Held every two years in November, the Dubai show continues to grow in importance due to the emergence of several mega-long haul carriers in the late nineties and early 2000’s. Following the lead of Emirates, they embraced a strategy of exploiting their geographic nexus between Asia, Europe and Africa. Qatar Airways, based in Doha, and Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, (often referred to as the ME3) followed suit.

The Dubai airport became a central hub for widebody aircraft from both Boeing and Airbus exchanging passengers travelling from India to South Africa, or London to Beijing. At 2AM local time, the airport was as busy as Grand Central Station at rush hour, and rented hotel rooms by the hour for weary travelers to catch a few winks and recharge their electronic devices, before boarding their next 10 hour leg.

As such, Emirates has the largest widebody fleet in the world, with 166 Airbus A380’s and 103 Boeing 777’s. With the cessation of production of the A380 in December of 2021, Emirates is in a symbiotic relationship with Airbus as its largest operator of the aircraft (only 251 units were built) and frequently makes its needs known to the OEM for life extension and support of the backbone of their fleet.

But it also transmits those signals to Boeing as well, placing the largest dollar volume order at the show for 65 Boeing 777-9’s worth $38 Billion including 130 General Electric 9X engines.

As detailed in “The Boeing 777X Continues to Frustrate” Forbes.com September 22, 2025, the 777X program is now seven years behind schedule and not expected to see deliveries until sometime in 2027 – as long as further delays do not occur. Boeing has experienced overruns of $15 Billion so far, and announced a $5 Billion charge to its earnings in October of this year. For a means of comparison, the original Boeing 777 program of the 1990’s was estimated to cost less than the overruns alone at this point.

Although a vote of confidence in the planned aircraft, the Emirates order was also interpreted as significant pressure for Boeing to get a move on. CEO Kelly Ortberg described regulatory paperwork, required for FAA certification, as the primary challenge in the earnings charge and schedule delay. Five test aircraft are flying, and no significant technical problems have appeared to date.

However, Emirates also increased its fleet of A350-900 aircraft to 73 by ordering another 8 units and continuing to push for a stretch version of the long haul widebody workhorse from Airbus. Etihad also ordered 16 A350’s which included freighters and the longer -1000 version. Over the next 20 years, the region is expected to account for almost 1,400 widebody deliveries.

On the defense side, the most striking news at the show actually occurred a few days before its start with the US President stating an expectation of selling 48 Lockheed F-35 fighters to Saudi Arabia when the country’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited the White House.

Such a move would be a major policy shift for the region, given Israel’s ownership of the same aircraft, and the US position of maintaining a “qualitative military edge” for its long standing ally. But Saudi Arabia is the largest customer for US arms and has sought F-35’s for years to help combat Iranian strength. A similar move was attempted in the first Trump Administration which never came to fruition.