Middle East Airports Need $151 Billion Investment by 2040 to Meet Growing Demand

The Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions are expected to account for 58 percent of the global air passenger demand in 2040. Aviation market intelligence CAPA — Centre for Aviation has region-wise listed the total numbers of the airport project and the volume of investment include 155 in Middle East worth $209 billion. Airports in the Middle East will need to invest $151 billion in capacity expansion as the global air passenger demand is expected to increase more than two-fold in 2040. With over 110 airports, the Middle East is already among the fastest growing in the world, accounting for 170 million of the global traffic. Close to 19.7 billion passengers are expected to traverse the world’s airports by 2040, according to the Airport Council International and the Middle East airports will handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040 — a significant increase from 2019’s 405 million. In the United Arab Emirates, the New Sharjah International Airport expansion, with an approximate cost of $517 million, will get completed by the fourth quarter of 2024. Kuwait Airport is expanding its passenger terminal 2 to handle 13 million passengers, at an estimated cost of $4.36 billion. In Qatar, Hamad International Airport Phase 2B’s expansion work on the passenger terminal is expected to commence this year and will enhance passenger capacity to more than 60 million annually. Saudi Arabia is set to build one of the world’s largest airports which will have six parallel runways. The airport will help drive annual passenger traffic to 120 million by 2030 and 185 million by 2050.

Niall Gibbons, the outgoing CEO of Tourism Ireland, has been headhunted to lead Neom in Saudi Arabia, according to a Sunday Times report. Following a 14-year tenure as the head of Tourism Ireland, Gibbons submitted his resignation in January and is anticipated to formally relinquish his role in April. He is scheduled to start at Neom in the next few weeks and is expected to relocate with his family to Tabuk, a province close to the border with Jordan, according to the Times report. Gibbons had been with Tourism Ireland for 21 years. Educated at Trinity in Dublin and a chartered accountant by training, he has played a part in every aspect of the promotion of the island of Ireland as a tourism destination overseas since the set-up of Tourism Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

Maintaining its momentum from last year’s global tournament, Qatar welcomed a tota