June 27 - The Middle East’s central location makes it a gateway for Europe, Asia, and Australia, and this connectivity is why the region will remain a major aviation hub, with airport capacity expected to reach 400 million over the next several years.  Dubai was the pioneer in connecting traffic flows between regions, with the home base for Emirates Airline benefiting the region as it expects to attract 400 million passengers over the next few years. 

“The Middle East is forging ahead, and within the next few years the collective capacity of airports in the region will reach 400 million passengers, with Dubai constituting 50 percent of the total “ said CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffith.  Aviation growth worldwide has slowed to less than 2 percent but in the Middle East the aviation industry is growing seven percent Griffiths said.  The pace of growth has been frenetic, he said because of rapid increases in capacity.