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Gulf Times
Thursday, January 29, 2015

COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
Production Editor: C P Ravindran

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Dubai airports might

leapfrogs British gateway
Heathrow has gradually
been losing its high ranking
position in relative terms to
Dubai for years

GULF TIMES
Super Bowl
from humble origin
to king of US sports
From modest beginnings of cheap tickets and empty
seats to $4.5mn for a 30-second TV ad, the Super Bowl
approaches its golden anniversary entrenched as the
undisputed king of US sporting events.
Super Bowl 49 will pit the Seattle Seahawks against
the New England Patriots in Glendale, Arizona, on
Sunday and gures to join 21 previous Super Bowls
atop the list of most watched US TV broadcasts.
A far cry from the rst Super Bowl clash between
the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs in 1967,
according to Jerry Izenberg of the (New Jersey) StarLedger, one of only two reporters to have covered the
rst ever Super Bowl.
What began as a transition before a merger of the
upstart AFL into the established NFL, the Super
Bowl caught the publics fancy when quarterback
Joe Namath of the underdog New York Jets of the
AFL guaranteed victory over the Baltimore Colts and
delivered a 16-7 win following the 1968 season.
By the 1970 campaign, the Super Bowl was just
the NFL title game. The Steelers, Browns and Colts
joined AFL teams in
an American Football
Conference to balance
with old NFL teams
in a National Football
Conference, and
winners met in the
Super Bowl.
The games popularity
exploded with glamour
teams like the unbeaten
Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers
and Steelers dominating.
Over time, huge TV ratings led to more creative
commercials to win attention and tickle viewers.
Halftime shows morphed from marching band
entertainment to must-see superstar extravaganzas.
A turning point came in 1992, after a competing
network heavily promoted a special football-themed
episode of a sitcom against the halftime show and
stole substantial ratings.
In 1993, Michael Jackson performed at halftime and
the intermission programme has been star-studded
since.
Ad revenues continue to climb, thanks to social
media.
Twenty years ago, no commercial was ever seen
before the game. There were no sneak peeks that are
all over the place now.
Now every Super Bowl advertiser is using social
media prior to the game and after the game to promote
their brand.
Expect the Super Bowl to continue to evolve.
Robert Boland, a professor at New York Universitys
Sports Management programme, said it has almost
everything that attracts someone who is not a football
fan.
Its really becoming a festival for a week. Im not
sure we wont see parties televised with a number of
entertainers and concerts, said Boland, envisioning a
week-long, pay-per-view bonanza in the future.

Every advertiser
is using social
media prior to
the game and
after the game
to promote their
brand

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By Updesh Kapur
Doha

his week Dubai came out

with a story that sent shivers
through a great British
institution.
For decades, UK Inc has relied
heavily on its premier gateway as the
entry point to a diverse nation.
Welcoming people back home
after an overseas jaunt, migrants
seeking pastures new, those looking
to reunite with friends and family,
individuals planning a holiday break or
simply international business houses
travelling to secure those all important
corporate deals.
London is one of the worlds
primary economic hubs and a tourist
haven.
None of the above will ever change.
But what will is London Heathrow,
now officially no longer the worlds
business international airport in terms
of annual passenger traffic. Dubai has
taken over.
Heathrow had around 68.1mn
international passengers using its
ve terminal facility during 2014,
compared with around 70.5mn ying
in and out of Dubai International.
Heathrow in fact saw more overall
number of passengers 73.4mn
but 5.3mn of these were domestic
travellers.
Not much difference in
international passenger numbers, but
enough to signal a sign of defeat by
the British airport to its Dubai rival.
For Dubai, seven hours ying time
from Heathrow that is decades older,
to secure top tier status is a feather in
its cap.
Heathrow will continue to attract

passengers in their droves. It is a

premier airport luring virtually all of
the worlds main airlines. The airport
is a British institution.
This weeks news may have sent
shivers through Britain, but certainly
not come as a surprise to observers.
Heathrow has gradually been losing
its high ranking position in relative
terms to Dubai for years. A sharp rise
in annual passenger numbers at Dubai,
with a relatively slow rate of growth
at Heathrow has resulted in the crown
changing hands.
Britain has beneted from being
home to the worlds largest port or
airport for the last 350 years. But
lack of capacity at Heathrow means
we have inevitably lost our crown to
Dubai, said a Heathrow spokeswoman
condently.

Britain has benefited

from being home to
the worlds largest
port or airport for the
last 350 years
She went on: This highlights the
pressing need to get on and expand our
own hub so that we can connect the
whole of the UK to global growth.
By contrast, Dubai is enjoying the
limelight.
This historic milestone is the
culmination of over ve decades of
double-digit average growth, said
Dubai Airports chairman Sheikh
Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum. The
goal is to make Dubai a global centre of
aviation and we are nearing that goal.
The story behind the stats makes
interesting reading.
Over 60% of Heathrows business
is reliant on point to point traffic.
Simply translated, this means
passengers fly in and of Heathrow
as opposed to transiting through the
airport. Its a business model that
has grown, but so too has Heathrows
increasing reliance on transit
passengers between connecting
flights to compete with the likes of
neighbouring European airports, and
indeed Dubai.
Heathrow has had no choice but
to change its model and try to attract
more transfer traffic from different
parts of the world but faces severe
infrastructure constraints.

Dubai International Airport in the 1970s.

The airport is operating at 98%

capacity. Theres little room to
grow. Lack of runway and terminal
infrastructure is preventing further
growth. There are aircraft departures
and arrivals every two minutes at its
two runways for almost 20 hours every
day. A 24-hour operation is ruled out
due to an overnight curfew on aircraft
movements.
Heathrow is currently the subject
of a runway expansion inquiry. Either
Heathrow gets a third runway or
neighbouring London Gatwick secures
the green light for a second airstrip to
help solve the runway crunch in South
East England.
A decision is expected in the
summer but building a new runway
and overcoming any regulatory
obstacles could take years.
For Heathrow, these are nervous
times. Desperate to increase
capacity, yet it faces the onslaught of
protestors opposing its expansion on
environmental grounds and concerns
over mass disruption within the
airports vicinity.
By contrast, the transit model is
what Dubai has excelled at, in making
a name for itself. A low home-based
population like Doha and other key
Gulf cities, Dubai has only had a single
vision to full its ambitions to become
the worlds busiest airport.
To do this, Dubai has had to market
itself as a tourist hub and with a strong
airport/airline infrastructure at the
crossroads of East and West. It is this
bridge linking cities around the world
through a single hub that has given
rise to Dubais fortunes.
Flying times of 18 hours or so
non-stop can connect Dubai with
cities across Europe, the Middle East,
Africa, Indian sub continent, Asia
Pacic and both North and South
America. Dubai International is home
to Emirates, the Middle Easts largest
carrier, which along with Abu Dhabis
Etihad and Dohas Qatar Airways,
has seized a signicant portion of
travel between the West, Asia and
Australasia.
While both Doha and Abu Dhabi are
recording strong growth, these two
airports are far from close to Dubais
gures. The latter will boost its annual
passenger throughput to around 79mn
passengers this year helped by the
opening of a new hall for departures
and arrivals.
As the worlds largest operator of
the biggest aircraft in the skies the

Airbus A380 superjumbo with over

50 of these planes currently in its
large eet, Dubai-based Emirates
strategy of only ying twin-aisle wide
body commercial jets has been largely
responsible for the surge in Dubais
passenger traffic.
Operating multi-frequency daily
ights between Dubai and cities
around the world provides passengers
with greater choice and ease of
connecting rather than face inevitable
congestion and delayed ights within
the sprawling Heathrow experience.
Dubai has its own answer to
congestion knowing very well that its
main international airport does not
have endless growth.
With over 100 of the A380s in the
pipeline, each with a capacity for over
450 passengers, Emirates will have to
eventually move to a new home away
from the constraints at its existing
airport. But this is not seen as a
problem.
Unlike Heathrow, Dubai already has
a sister airport in the wings.
Located 50km away, Al-Maktoum
Internationals six runway facility
opened to passenger business in 2013
and will be capable of handling 120mn
travellers when fully operational by
2020.
Incredibly, Dubais increase in
passenger numbers last year comes
despite a significant disadvantage
experiencing a fall in the number
of flights taking off in 2014, due to
an 11-week runway refurbishment
project.
It handled one-fth fewer ights
than London Heathrow last year. But
the average load on each plane landing
or taking off from Dubai was 196,
compared with just 145 on the typical
ight to or from Heathrow. This is
indeed a tale of two airports thousands
of miles apart with London Heathrow
and Dubai handling capacity
constraints in different ways.
One faces potential opposition
to growth while another simply
continues to plough in bigger jets in
preparation for a move to a new home
in the long-term. Heathrow, for sure,
has its work cut out to regain that allimportant crown.
zUpdeshKapur is a PR &
communications professional,
columnist, aviation, hospitality
and travel analyst, social and
entertainment writer. He can be
followed on twitter @updeshkapur

Dubai International Airport today.

German economic prospects brighten

By Andrew McCathie
Berlin/ DPA

he German economy has

entered the new year on a
high note, with low prices
and the slump in the value
of the euro helping to brighten
the growth prospects for Europes
economic powerhouse.
The government of Chancellor
Angela Merkel yesterday revised up its
2015 growth forecast, to 1.5%, amid
a surge in consumer condence and
employment.
The latest data stands in sharp
contrast to a few months ago, when
the German economy was on the brink
of recession and the outlook was grim,
in no small part due to the crisis in
Ukraine.
Since then, plummeting oil prices
and the sharp fall in the euro - a direct
consequence of the European Central
Banks plan to pump 60bn euros
($68bn) a month into the faltering
eurozone economy - have boosted
optimism about Germanys economic
prospects.
The German economy is
continuing along the road to recovery,
said Commerzbank economist Ralph
Solveen.

We assume that this upward trend

will continue in the coming months
because of the economic tailwind
resulting from the weaker euro and
cheaper crude oil, he said.
Analysts predict that data due
to be released today will show
unemployment falling for the fourth
consecutive month in January,
with the recent pickup in hiring
boosting tax revenue and helping the
government balance its budget a year
earlier than expected.

The German
economy is
continuing along the
road to recovery
Government plans to spend about
10bn euros over the next four years
on infrastructure development have
added to the more positive economic
outlook.
Germanys closely-watched Ifo
business condence indicator rose
for the third consecutive month in
January, reaching its highest level in
six months.
At the same time, German investor
condence has surged to an 11-month

high, according to a survey released

last week by the Mannheim-based
ZEW institute. Export expectations
are also up, rising for the fourth month
in a row in January.
The signs of a recovery in the
making have become even stronger
and more unambiguous, said Andreas
Rees, chief German economist with
UniCredit.
While oil prices have dropped about
50% since the middle of last year, the
euro has slumped to around $1.134. It
was almost $1.40 in May.
The improved export opportunities
apply to almost all major sectors
of German industry, said Ifo chief
Hans-Werner Sinn, who noted that
the rebound in the US economy is also
helping drive global trade.
Provoking the fall in the European
common currency is last weeks
announcement by the ECB of a 1tneuro stimulus plan for the 19-member
eurozone.
Despite misgivings from the
German political establishment
about the ECB monetary expansion
programme, the nations investors
have celebrated the banks plans by
driving the Frankfurt stock markets
leading DAX index to record highs.
German Economics Minister
Sigmar Gabriel concedes that

German exporters, particularly the

nations key small-to-medium sized
businesses, will benefit from the
euros drop.
But hanging over the German
economy is the weak demand among
its key eurozone trading partners,
as well as the constant threat of an
escalation of tensions in eastern
Ukraine.
Whatever concerns there may be on
the trade front, the eonomics ministry
has pointed to domestic demand
as a pillar of growth in 2015, with a
2.7-per-cent rise in real wages and
a solid labour market helping drive
consumer spending.
German consumers have evidently
also been affected by the major
collapse in energy prices over the past
few weeks, the GfK said as it released
its forward-looking consumer
condence indicator.
Reduced costs of fuel and heating
oil are boosting disposable income,
giving consumers greater freedom
for other spending or purchases, it
said.
The GfK expects the index to hit
its highest level since November
2001 next month, with the institutes
survey of German household showing
big gains in income and spending
expectations.