H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, DAE’s Chairman, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Group

March 28, 2007—Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai International Aerospace, is confident the Carlyle Group will be part of its portfolio within three months.
“Our board of directors have approved it, it’s just the process and formalities,” he said. “We don’t anticipate any problems, it’s all going in a positive way. We are working very closely with the United States and moving in the right direction.”

Sheikh Ahmed, understandably keen to avert a DP World-style, stresses that the U.A.E. takes security at its ports and airports extremely seriously. “When it comes to fighting terrorism, it’s something that’s not acceptable to the whole world, not just the U.A.E.,” said Sheikh Ahmed, who is also chairman of the Emirates Group and president of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation.

State-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is negotiating with the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C., to buy Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings for more than $1.5 billion. Standard Aero, based in Canada, employs about 275 employees at its Maryville facility at 1029 Ross Drive. The company also operates 10 other locations in the US and serves customers in 75 countries.

Sheikh Ahmed, who is also chairman of the Emirates Group and President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation, has a busy workload these days, particularly with Dubai International Airport gearing up for major expansion.

Maintaining Dubai Duty Free’s impressive growth is another of his responsibilities, one of the most visible brands visitors see when entering and leaving Dubai.

“It’s always been known as a good facility in terms of prices and goods availability for transit, departing and arriving passengers,” he said. “It’s one of the main supporting activities in terms of paying for the new projects. The upcoming Concourse 2 and Concourse 3 will be big facilities, and contain an expanded arrivals area. The concept is a bit different from what we have today in the existing terminal, which is more of a mall concept. The new concourses will have shops scattered more, although the majority will still be in the middle. There will be more duplication of shops on each side.”

Thereafter, his attention will soon be switching to the development of the new Dubai World Central International Airport under construction in Jebel Ali.

“The runway will be one of the first infrastructures to be ready towards the end of this year, the Dubai Logistics City will start later. Dubai International will still be the main focus for the next three or four years. It’s not easy because we’re building everything from A to Z. We’re also building a monorail which will connect to the airport.”

Emirates recently placed an order for an additional four A380 super jumbos, taking its order to 47 aircraft, and between now and 2010, Emirates expects to receive about 63 Boeing 777 aircraft. Flights to Houston start in December.

“The A380 production delays forced us to postpone some of the new routes,” he said. “We plan to fly to Buenos Aires which is on our network planning, probably 2008 or 2009. We’re also looking at the U.S. West Coast, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as Chicago.”

Emirates has no problem flying to the United States as the country has open bilateral agreements, said Sheikh Ahmed. “With any point serving in America, it’s all dependent on us and availability of aircraft,” he said.