[DUBAI] US President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip will take him back to a region that made huge investments in the US in his first term. Now Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are aiming even higher with their aviation and defence industries to turn commercial deals into political capital.
Some of the Middle East’s largest airlines are rushing to line up major accords for Trump’s visit, which is set to kick off May 13. Qatar Airways is poised to make the biggest splash: the carrier is putting the final touches on an order for around 100 Boeing widebody jets, with an option for as many more, according to people familiar with deliberations.
Including corporate deals that span defence, aviation, infrastructure and technology, the accords may approach US$3 trillion, far outstripping the haul that Trump managed on his first tour of the region in 2017.
For the Middle East governments, the commitments are a tool to show their allegiance to the White House and curry favour with Trump. For his part, the US president wants to burnish his credentials as a consummate dealmaker, while allaying concerns about the robustness of global alliances after Trump’s drastic tariff announcements last month spooked international governments and investors.
The president’s own jet upgrade may figure into the proceedings in Doha. A private Boeing 747 jumbo that Trump toured in February, originally owned by a former Qatari prime minister, has emerged as an interim solution to the new Air Force One presidential planes whose nose-to-tail makeover by Boeing is years behind schedule.
The luxuriously appointed jet was previously based in the Qatari capital city, but has been in San Antonio, Texas since Apr 3, according to flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange.
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Boeing could do with some fresh government support. The biggest US exporter of manufactured goods has come under pressure in the wake of Trump’s tariff announcements, which prompted China to tell its airlines to stop taking Boeing planes. That, in turn, might become a bonus for arch-rival Airbus, which operates a final assembly line for its most popular jet, the A320, in Tianjin in eastern China.
In Saudi Arabia, startup airline Riyadh Air is looking at buying as many as 50 widebody jets, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential commercial negotiations. The carrier is still in negotiations, and the deal may actually favour Airbus, whose chief executive officer, Guillaume Faury, visited Riyadh last week, they said.
With Trump touring the region, the spotlight will be on Boeing for aircraft sales. But Airbus is also pushing to bring home some business from carriers like Qatar Airways. Still, the European manufacturer is likely to win a much smaller haul than Boeing, the people said. Qatar is mainly interested in adding to its fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft along with a smaller number of 777X jets.
The Doha carrier may yet commit more Airbus A350-1000 jets, the people said. But any Airbus order from the Gulf carriers will most likely get announced at the Paris Air Show in June or later in the year at the Dubai Air Show, they said.
Boeing, Airbus and Qatar Airways declined to comment. Riyadh Air said “a campaign is ongoing for an ultra wide body order and a decision will be made in the coming months.”
The sums that the White House is pushing Gulf states to invest in US infrastructure, energy, defence and manufacturing would far surpass the US$400 billion in deals that Saudi Arabia signed in 2017, when Trump first visited the kingdom as US president with a cadre of American business leaders in tow.
Trump wants Saudi Arabia to boost its investment in the US to US$1 trillion after the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, offered US$600 billion in trade and investment over the next four years. The UAE told Trump in March that it will invest US$1.4 trillion in the US economy in AI infrastructure – including US$100 billion in a Trump venture – as well as semiconductors, energy, and manufacturing over the next 10 years.
The White House has made clear it would like similar commitments from Qatar during Trump’s first visit to the gulf state as president, said one of the people.
Weapons sales also stand to feature large during Trump’s time to Riyadh, according to people familiar with the matter. Possible acquisitions include Boeing F-15EX fighters, according to one of the people. The US approved the sale of weapons worth an estimated US$3.5 billion last week to Saudi Arabia, including 1,000 AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles and 50 guidance sections, as well as logistics and programme support.
The US is already the world’s largest exporter of arms, commanding a 43 per cent global share, according to Swedish defence think tank SIPRI. In recent years, more than half of arms imports to the Middle East came from the US, according to SIPRI calculations.
The United Arab Emirates will be the final leg of Trump’s regional tour. Emirates is the world’s largest buyer of Boeing aircraft, though the company typically makes any commercial announcements at the Dubai Air Show that occurs biennially in November. Emirates has said it’s in the market for additional 777X widebody jets, and sister carrier Flydubai is also looking at ordering hundreds of Boeing’s bestselling 737 model.
The orders under consideration for Trump’s visit this month will likely also include purchases for hundreds of General Electric engines that power Boeing aircraft, the people said. Along with Qatar Airways, Flydubai is also looking to close a deal for about 70 GE engines for their 787 Dreamliners, they said.
As with Trump’s previous visit to the region, any announcements will likely be a mix of new sales, initial agreements and previously announced activity, said the people. That means the deals could be inflated in value and some will not be binding, they cautioned. BLOOMBERG
