Commercial aircraft exports to the UAE generated over 100,000 jobs in US in 2012, and the current $37 billion (Dh135.8 billion) orders from UAE carriers will over time support more than 200,000 high-paying manufacturing jobs in the US, says a new report.
In 2012, the US-UAE commercial-aviation relationship generated more than $16 billion in benefit to the US, more than 100,000 jobs, and over $1.6 billion in tax revenue, said a new report released by the UAE-US Business Council.
The US Department of Commerce estimates that each one billion dollars in aerospace exports sustains 6,700 jobs, which means that the current UAE order book of $37 billion will over time support more than 200,000 US jobs (this total has been reduced to reflect the gap between list price and actual negotiated price). Applying this jobs estimate to 2012, airliner exports sustained 30,800 jobs.
Emirates operates eight flights daily from Dubai to US offering 2,932 seats; Etihad operates three flight a day offering 892 seats; and United and Delta airlines operate one flight each, offering 267 and 269 seats – respectively. In all, there are 13 flights a day, offering 4,360 seat capacity.
Etihad’s Abu Dhabi-Washington DC flight will start from March 31, 2013.
From 2002 to January 2012, Emirates ordered 151 Boeing aircraft worth approximately $47 billion at current list prices. As of January 31, 2013, Emirates still had on order 73 777 wide-body aircraft valued at $23 billion — six were 777 freighters and 67 of the largest 777, the -300ER. Each of the latter lists for $315 million.
Flydubai, a Dubai-based low cost carrier (which does not serve the US), has ordered 50 737-800 narrow-body aircraft worth $4.45 billion at list price. Boeing has delivered 27, and 23 are still to be delivered, at a cost of $2 billion.
Etihad Airways, since its launch in 2003, has ordered 62 Boeings, 21 777s and 41 787s, and these were valued at $16.5 billion. Future deliveries comprise six 777s and the entire 787 order, worth a total of $10 billion, the report said.
Employing staff at airport
To service their 11 daily departures from their nine gateways (including Etihad Airways from Washington, beginning March 31), Emirates employs 307 US citizens and legal residents, and Etihad Airways employs 68. These numbers, however, do not include the significant number of employees at the handling companies both airlines use for services inside the terminals (check-in and gates), on the ramp, and for cargo operations.
In a study of possible Emirates expansion in North America, the aviation consulting firm InterVISTAS calculated that each daily flight generates about 200 jobs directly at an airport, and total airport impact (including the spinoff effects described below) of approximately $80 million per year. It’s thus reasonable to extrapolate totals of more than 2,600 airport jobs and more than $1 billion in economic benefit at just the nine airports that receive the 13 nonstops from the UAE.
UAE carried 1.218 million passengers into the US, and 48 per cent, 586,670, were foreign visitors.
These visitors’ direct expenditure in the US exceeded $2.3 billion, for hotels, restaurant meals, car rentals, visitor attractions, and the like. This total does not include visitors who arrive on Delta and United nonstops from Dubai, nor air travel on connecting carriers within the US; Etihad Airways in particular has a codeshare alliance with American Airlines, while Emirates has partnerships with Alaska Airlines and JetBlue.
Increased nonstop commercial airline service between the UAE and US is the fastest growing bilateral aviation relationship in the world, the UAE-US Business Council report said.
To meet this new demand for travel to the UAE and beyond, Dubai-based Emirates Airline, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, and the US carriers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines now offer more than 61,000 seats on 182 nonstop flights each week, to and from nine US gateway cities.
Over 2.4m passengers to travel nonstop between UAE and US in 2013, over 2.4 million passengers will travel nonstop between the UAE and US, and total capacity (in seats) between the two countries is nearly as large as US-Australia or US-Spain.
In 2012, about $22.6 billion worth of US goods and services were bought by UAE from all 50 US states, from big things like Boeing 777s to small items like door hinges from a family business in Missouri.
The UAE ranks 28 (in GDP) among world economies, but is the United States’ 17th-largest export customer. From 2002 to 2012, the UAE was the fastest-growing US export destination (among those countries importing more than $5 billion each year), growing greater than 500 per cent. And on a per capita basis, among export destinations larger than one million people, the UAE ranks third, behind Canada and Singapore.
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