The smart airport market in the Middle East region is expected to reach $850 million over the next three years, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than four per cent, said a report.

The growth in the region will be spearheaded by the Gulf countries ably supported by Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey, stated Technavio, a leading global technology research and advisory company, in its market review.

The Technavio report covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the global smart airport market for 2015-2019.

The market is divided into terminal operation, airside operation, and landside operation in terms of application. Of these three applications, the terminal operations application accounted for 51 per cent of the market share in 2014 and is expected to keep the leading position until 2019, stated the report.

According to Technavio, the Middle East is an emerging market for smart airports mainly driven by a spurt in investments from the UAE government towards expansion of airport capacity and building efficient operations.

The use of smart technologies, it stated, will help airport authorities reduce 25 per cent of operational costs and provide passengers with seamless travel.

On the global scale, the smart airport market is expected to reach close to $13 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost six per cent.

As of 2014, Asia Pacific (Apac) region holds the largest market share, accounting for over 40 per cent of the global smart airport market, it stated.

The countries in the Apac region include India, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, New Zealand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal.


The other regions being covered by Technavio’s research study include:

*Americas - Countries of North America and Latin America
*Europe - France, Germany, Russia, Spain, the UK, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Ireland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland.
*Middle East - Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the UAE, and Yemen

According to the report, the Apac region will continue to dominate the market through 2019, thanks to the growing aircraft fleet and passenger traffic, especially in India and China.

"China accounted for a significant share in Apac because of an increase in government funding that is aimed at facilitating the development of airports," explained Sriram Mohan, a lead analyst from Technavio’s aerospace sector.

"For instance, the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration is planning to invest $500 million in the construction of 69 regional airports in China by 2019," he revealed.

Acording to him, India, Singapore, and China are some of the countries that will showcase the highest demand for smart airport technologies during the period till 2019.

The smart airport market in Europe is expected to reach $4 billion, growing at a CAGR of close to 6 per cent.The growth of the smart airport market in Europe is due to increased air passenger traffic over the last couple of years in European countries.

On the air passenger traffic, Technavio’s report said it had increased to 500 million for domestic flights in European countries, whereas the number has increased to 330 million in international routes over the last couple of years.

“Increased passenger traffic has encouraged airport and airline authorities to further increase their investment in the development and innovation of technologies that provide various services such as flight status, baggage tracking, smart parking, and smart advertising in airports,” remarked Mohan.

With just over 21 per cent of the overall market share, the Americas still need to catch up to the trend of smart airports. In 2014, the smart airport market in the Americas was valued at $2 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $2.72 billion by 2019, depicting a moderate growth.

In North America, the US is the largest market for commercial airport luggage-handling systems, said the report.

Latin America is expected to increase its demand for smart airport technologies because of the increased investment in airport construction, it added.-TradeArabia News Service