Last week’s terrorist bombings in Jordan’s capital, Amman, are unsettling for the aerospace industry. These are the latest outrages in otherwise stable parts of the Middle East, and come at a time when the Arab world has an ever larger share of airliner manufacturers’ orderbooks.
But the industry seems remarkably sanguine about the prospects of a major economic implosion in the region caused by terrorism sparking a flight of tourism and investment. The countries responsible for most of the backlog – the oil-rich Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – have so far been virtually untouched by terrorism. Their economies are also sophisticated and robust and bankrolled by oil revenues, unlike recent victims such as Bali and the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, which depend on tourism.
But acts of terrorism can have spectacular repercussions: 9/11 changed history and most US airlines are still coming to terms with its effects. Dubai is not New York, but its importance to the world economy – and aerospace – is growing each year.
The shock waves from an act of terror in the most dynamic market for airliner sales could be more widespread than many would like to think.
Source: Flight International
