By IANS
Dubai : The 10th Dubai Air Show concluded Thursday with onsite sales figures of over $100 billion – the highest ever for any global aviation event.
The air show came to an end with the Emirates, the international airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), placing an $8.8-million order for a cabin service trainer (CST) with a local firm.
Under the contract, Dubai’s Spatial Composite Solutions will design a total of 13 CSTs with Emirates’ specifications for various Airbus and Boeing configurations, including the Airbus A380 superjumbo, and install these at the new Emirates Aviation Crew Training College in Dubai.
Among the major deals struck during the five-day show at the Airport Expo area near the Dubai International Airport was a $31.2-billion order with Airbus for 70 A350 airliners and 11 A380s placed by Emirates.
Emirates also placed a smaller order worth $3.2 billion with Boeing for 12 of its 777-300ER aircraft.
Other deals included a firm contract for 10 Airbus A350 XWBs from Yemenia, the official carrier of Yemen, a $500-million maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) contract by Abu Dhabi’s Ettihad Airways to Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies and an order for five A330s from Oman Air.
India’s Invision Projects ordered 20 executive jets from Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer in a deal worth $69.4 million. Deliveries of 18 Phenom-100 and two Phenom-300 jets will begin Aug 2010.
Another interesting sidelight was Saudi Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud becoming the first private buyer of the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jetliner.
The prince, 52, flew down to the show on the second day in his private Boeing 747 to buy the double-decker superjumbo, the list price of which is $319 million.
According to normal airline configuration, the A380 can seat 525 passengers or up to 853 people in full economy class configuration.
Meanwhile, even as the show closed, key industry players started booking space for the 2009 edition of this biennial event, which started in 1989.
“Over 5,000 sq m of floor space has been contracted by more than 20 companies from throughout North America and the Middle East,” Alison Weller, director of Aerospace, Fairs & Exhibitions (F&E), which organises the show in coordination with Dubai’s Civil Aviation Authority and the UAE Armed Forces, stated in a press release here Thursday.
Leading the early day booking surge was Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), which has reserved more than 800 sq m of exhibition space and a 500 sq m chalet area for Dubai Airshow 2009, which will run at a new purpose-built facility at Dubai World Central, a huge urban aviation community being built in Jebel Ali, 30 km north of Dubai city centre.
“Dubai Air show 2007 was Mubadala’s international aerospace exhibition debut but the company will now become a familiar name at all the major aviation forums worldwide where we will demonstrate our broad spectrum of capabilities and world-class partnerships,” said Homaid Al Shemmari, director of aerospace and technology unit in Mubadala.
Other major industry names which have confirmed participation for Dubai Airshow 2009 include Boeing, Cessna, Eclipse, KBR, Hawker, Crane and Pratt & Whitney.