The world’s largest business jet – Boeing 747-8i – has reportedly been put on sale by the Qatar government’s Amiri Flight.

Dubai is to be the headquarters of a new business aircraft leasing and flight-booking technology company headed by the founder of VistaJet, Thomas Flohr.

The third largest US business jet charter operator by flight hours, XO Jet, which is part-owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, has been bought by Vista Global.

Jet Aviation has successfully performed two simultaneous 192-month C-Checks on Gulfstream GVs in Dubai. Both checks were combined with a number of service bulletins. The company recently redelivered the aircraft to two separate customers.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has signed a new unsecured US$720 million revolving credit facility with a group of nine international banks based in US, Europe and Asia. The credit facility has a maturity of five years.

With an autonomous electric aircraft already in production and operation, U.S. startup Pyka has unveiled plans to develop a larger aircraft for the regional cargo and passenger markets.

In future, business aviation will be as ubiquitous as driving a car – according to Badr Al-Olama, Head of Aerospace, Mubadala Investment Company, who delivered a dramatic vision of the sector’s future in a keynote speech at the second day of the MEBAA Conference Dubai.

While the Middle East is an extremely conducive environment for business aviation, with some 540 private aircraft deployed across the region, the weather conditions and all year-round sunshine can present problems for aircraft owners and operators.