Dubai's Chance to Become the World's Leading Sea to Air Conversion Hub : Multimodal Freight Transportation

Commonly academic papers on freight transportation focus on the combination of road and rail transport, alternatively combining sea and rail transport. However, little attention has been given to multimodal sea-air transportation despite its enormous potential in shaping global supply chains. This relatively new transportation model combines the best of two worlds: The cost efficiency of sea freight with the speed and reliability of air freight. This paper not only focuses on outlining the efficiency and benefits of combined sea-air freight, but rather includes an economic analysis on Dubai as a transit hub. Therefore this essay examines topics such as Dubai's business environment, its strategic location concerning major international trade flows as well as its transportation infrastructure including a sea- and airport analysis. Additionally global competitive locations, mainly Singapore, are evaluated and compared to Dubai. In depth study of up-to-date specialist literature mainly contributes to the assessment of Dubai's potential in becoming the world's leading sea to air conversion hub.