2015 World Air Games Dubai, will take off from tomorrow

The limelight will turn to the skies as the 12-day 2015 World Air Games takes off in Dubai tomorrow and runs from 1 December to  12 December, 2015  . A record total of more than 1,200 athletes from 56 countries are taking part in this year’s event, giving the Dubai hospitality sector a welcome boost and further raising the global profile of the emirate as a world-class sporting and recreational venue.

30 November 2015

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) awarded the rights to stage the games, which is free for spectators, to the Emirates Aerosports Federation (EAF) last year event and is sponsored by the luxury Swiss watch maker Breitling. The last WAG was in Italy in 2009.

The organisers are covering costs for competitors once they arrive in the Arabian Gulf for what is expected to be the biggest WAG to date.

“We have been represented before but this one is on a larger scale,” says David Phipps, the general secretary of the Royal Aero Club, who is leading the United Kingdom delegation.

One of the FAI’s stated ambitions for the Dubai WAG is to create an “attractive platform for TV, media and other external stakeholders”.

“The FAI World Air Games is an absolutely thrilling competition which showcases the best of air sports,” says the FAI president John Grubbström. “Every single detail of each event will be thought through to communicate the excitement and joy of air sports to the spectators on-site and to the television viewers.”

Majid Al Bastaki, the head of the Dubai event’s media committee, said last month: “More than 170 countries have shown an interest in covering the event and we have been working in close league with Dubai Sports Channel and Abu Dhabi Sports.

“The interest has been huge during the build-up and we will go even stronger with our promotional campaign as the event approaches,” he said.

The chairman of the higher organising committee, Saeed Hareb, added: “We have all the elements needed to ensure an excellent World Air Games. We are convinced that Dubai will stage games to remember for a long time to come.”

The event is sponsored by the luxury Swiss watch maker Breitling, which joined the FAI in 2012. “Securing a sponsorship contract with … Breitling was a significant step for the federation, as it is our first ever global sponsor,” Mr Grubbström says.

While the value of the Breitling deal was not announced, the company sponsors other air events, too. In 2013 it paid US$1.2 million to be the title sponsor of the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada.

At the Dubai event, Breitling will also be represented on a personal level as the company sponsors the French flyer Aude Lemordant. A Boeing 777 pilot, Lemordant is also the world aerobatics champion and will make her WAG debut in Dubai.

The FAI has 87 full members as diverse as Albania and the United States and the WAG features sports in 11 broad categories including aerobatics; aeromodelling; aerostats, which comprises ballooning and airships; amateur-built and experimental aircraft; gliding; microlights; parachuting; paragliding; helicopters; and paramotors.

Competitions will be held across four locations in Dubai – Marina Dropzone, Margham Dropzone, Jebel Ali racecourse and Sufooh beach.

Each country has to provide officials, such as competition judges and jury members. Some of the larger teams, such as the UK and the US, are bringing delegations of about 100 people.

For any team, however, the costs of shipping equipment can be a major hurdle, most notably the aircraft used in the helicopters category.

A maximum of two helicopters are allowed per team. The UK has taken up that allowance, but getting a pair of its own aircraft out to the Gulf ultimately proved unfeasible.