ExecuJet Middle East closed its Riyadh FBO in 2021 due to Covid but is now planning market expansion in Saudi Arabia. It also expects to open an FBO at Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport (OMDW) in the fourth quarter, with an official opening slated for the Dubai Airshow in November.

The company will retain the FBO presence it has had for 11 years at Dubai International (OMDB) when the new facility opens but will close the temporary site it has been operating at OMDW as soon as the new FBO becomes active; it will also close the MRO shop it has been operating at OMDB. Dassault has owned and operated ExecuJet MRO worldwide since its acquisition in 2019.

ExecuJet FBO regional director Dumani Ndebele told AIN that “2022 was a really strong year for ExecuJet Middle East across all our divisions—FBO, aircraft management, and charter. FBO in particular had a really significant year. It was our busiest year on record and considering we were coming out of Covid, we are very pleased. A lot of it was driven by Dubai Expo 2020.” 

In the early months of 2022, ExecuJet saw several diplomatic and head-of-state flights coming through its facilities at OMDB and OMDW. “That really bumped up our movements,” he said. “Then, obviously, late in the year we had the World Cup in Qatar in November and December, and that ended up being the busiest period that we’ve had in almost 15 years of operating FBOs in the region.”

While Ndebele declined to share movement numbers on the Qatar World Cup, he said, “I can tell you that, across the two airports, ExecuJet probably had the highest number of movements of any of the FBOs in Dubai because, apart from Jet Aviation, of course, we are the only ones with FBOs at both locations.”

Having one company that could support World Cup fans in both airports resulted in ExecuJet having quite a large share of the traffic during that period, he noted. “In general at OMDW, Jetex has a majority of the flights. Between the two Dubai airports, a lot of aircraft go from OMDW to OMDB and come back, for lots of what we call ‘pickup moves’ between the two. We had several aircraft that would fly to Qatar, come back, [and then shuttle] between them.”

He said clients continue to choose OMDB based on location and access to downtown and other areas. “You also have a lot of clients who connect: they fly in commercial from the U.S. or Europe, and then fly privately within the region," Ndebele noted.

"I don’t expect that we'll see any change in terms of the amount of traffic coming through. It’s really just about reestablishing our market share at OMDW. We will have all of those new facilities open and available. In our view, this will enable us to meet every possible requirement. I expect that we will also have a good amount of business at OMDW.”

Because it will open soon, Ndebele said, business involving the use of ExecuJet’s new hangar adjoining the FBO at OMDW would likely start in summer, as it has already signed up clients and has its own fleet based at the airport. “We probably are at four new clients. We expect that there’ll be huge demand and it might be difficult for us to accommodate all the aircraft that are coming our way.”

The vast majority of owners on ExecuJet’s UAE air operator certificate do not charter out their aircraft. “They want them exclusively for their own use,” Ndebele said. “We have two aircraft that are currently available to charter. One is a Bombardier Global 6000, which is based out of OMDW. Then we’ve got an Embraer Lineage 1000 based at OMDB. Those two aircraft are chartered out quite often.”

Turning to Saudi Arabia, Ndebele said ExecuJet had an FBO in operation in Riyadh for a decade, in association with the local NasJet. “Unfortunately, we had to close that during Covid. However, we are in talks to resume our operations there. We’ve established ourselves extremely well and built up quite a strong client base. We are actively looking to open there again soon, and hopefully we will be able to announce that at some point.”

ExecuJet also has a strategic partnership in the region with Bilen in Turkey. “At Istanbul, we’ve been working with them for the last 10 years or so, and that’s been going very well," Ndebele said. "There have been a couple of conversations on FBO opportunities in other Middle Eastern countries. We again hope to be able to make announcements at some point. It’s still very much in discussions.”

Although he did not give details, Ndebele said ExecuJet Middle East is studying the launch of FBO operations in Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain.

He said Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 envisioned the entry of more corporate aviation companies to set up MROs and hangars and establish a base for aircraft, as the majority of private jets in the region are in Saudi Arabia. “They’re really going to open it up,” he said. “I think right now, they’re very receptive to having the right companies, with the right level of experience, as well as global reach, to come in and help them achieve their goals.”

His expectation is that ExecuJet will be represented at the main airports at Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. “With the Red Sea projects—Al Ula, Amaala, Neom—these are all airports that I expect will be having significant private aircraft movements due to the projects that are being constructed in those areas,” he said. “There are at least eight airports in Saudi Arabia that you’d need to look at seriously.”

He said ExecuJet was still very much in the deliberation process regarding where it was going to be and ascertaining from the authorities what it could and could not do in the kingdom.

“The ideal would be to obviously have our own facilities in these areas because that’s the ExecuJet model,” he said. “We would rather have standalone facilities where we can service clients at the level that we do across the world. I think the changes have actually already started.”  

He expects a substantial change in Saudi Arabia soon. “They are getting the right people in place,” he said. “I know that they’ve taken on people within the government authorities that understand how private aviation works elsewhere in the world—and particularly in Dubai—and they’re the people actually driving the changes. I do feel that Saudi Arabia is going to be a very attractive market coming up soon.”