Showing posts with label Arabian Aerospace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arabian Aerospace. Show all posts

Wednesday 1 November 2023

Interview: Basheer Al-Shabbani, Fly Baghdad CEO


Full article in PDF format: page 17-18 & cover

Back in 2013, Saad Al-Khafaji, the then director general of Iraqi Airways, beamed from cheek to cheek while talking to Arabian Aerospace about the coming “tsunami” in Baghdad.

Unfortunately, the surge in tourism and business traffic predicted by Al-Khafaji never materialised – replaced, instead, by a brutal Daesh insurgency that would paralyse Iraq and the Middle East for years. The devastating fallout of that conflict continues to this day. But, with security now largely restored, hopes are rising once again that Baghdad will rehabilitate its image on the world stage.

And, while the flag-carrier has succeeded in doubling its fleet and rebuilding much of its pre-war network, it’s the private sector that’s arguably taken the biggest strides forward for civil aviation...

Interview: Jahed Azimi, Kam Air CEO


Full article in PDF format

On 26th August 2021, as US forces scrambled to escape from Kabul amid a sweeping return to power for the Taliban, Hamid Karzai International Airport became the scene of one of Afghanistan’s worst atrocities in recent memory.

At least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 US military personnel were killed in a Daesh-orchestrated suicide bombing of the international gateway.

Despite widespread fears of a return to civil war, it took the newly reinstated Taliban authorities just one month to declare their (now renamed) airport “fully operational” and open again for business. The hope was that former partners like Emirates Airline, Flydubai, Turkish Airlines, Air India and Pakistan International Airlines would flock back to the country.

Two years on, however, only Flydubai has accepted the invitation...

Saturday 1 May 2021

Interview: József Váradi, Wizz Air CEO


Full article in PDF format: page 19-20 & cover

As Europe’s fastest growing low-cost carrier, it should come as no surprise that Wizz Air jumped on the chance to establish a subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates.

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi launched operations this year as a joint venture between the Hungarian airline group and ADQ, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. It is hoping to grab a large slice of the lucrative Gulf market, which has, to date, been relatively inhospitable to low-cost carriers.

Much more surprising was the willingness of Abu Dhabi to partner with Wizz Air in the first place...

Interview: Abdelhadi Mansur, Berniq Airways General Manager


Full article in PDF format

Libya’s Berniq Airways took to the skies in March with an inaugural service from home base Benghazi to capital city Tripoli.

The new airline, which is named after Princess Berenice II of ancient Egypt, launched operations with a nine-year-old Airbus A320.

Its largest shareholder, Benghazi’s Bank of Commerce & Development, has an opaque ownership structure that includes some public-sector entities. But, with 60% of the airline in private hands, general manager Captain Abdelhadi Mansur said he has no concerns about political interference...

Friday 1 May 2020

Interview: Yossrey Abdel Wahab, Nile Air Managing Director


Full article in PDF format

In recent years Nile Air had seemed to be a rare bright spot in Egypt’s civil aviation market, spreading its wings even as the country grappled with a series of political and security crises.

Former boss Ahmed Aly attributed the airline’s success to its varied customer base of business travellers, pilgrims, tourists, and visiting friends and relatives. Under his watch, the full-service carrier grew its fleet from two to seven aircraft while launching a host of new routes.

But the expansion ground to a halt in 2017 and Aly’s successor, Yossrey Abdel Wahab, is far from convinced about the wisdom of the strategy...

Saturday 1 February 2020

SaudiGulf's high hopes


Full article in PDF format: page 16-17 & cover

With just six aircraft in its fleet, SaudiGulf Airlines, a boutique carrier based in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia, has only a modest slice of the kingdom’s fast-expanding aviation market.

Owners Al-Qahtani Group, a family-run conglomerate, undoubtedly hoped to spread their wings faster when they were granted an operating licence in 2016.

But, for chief executive Abdulmohsen Jonaid, who joined the airline after heading up Saudia, the country’s much larger flag-carrier, quality is more important than quantity at this stage of SaudiGulf’s development...

Friday 1 November 2019

MEA: Beirut force


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During the early years of Syria’s civil war, Middle East Airlines (MEA), the flag-carrier of neighbouring Lebanon, benefited from an uncomfortable spike in demand due to its proximity to the battleground.

With Syrian airspace all but closed to civilian traffic, most refugees who could afford airline tickets drove 110km from Damascus to Beirut before boarding their flights.

That footfall has subsided in recent years as the war-torn state hobbles towards some semblance of normality. At home, flag-carrier Syrian Arab Airlines is plotting to re-build its network with new Russian aircraft that are not subject to Western sanctions. Abroad, a handful of international airlines have tentative plans to resume operations in Damascus.

And while less cross-border demand seems like bad news for MEA, Mohamad El-Hout, the airline’s longstanding chairman, actually wants the trend to continue...

Thursday 1 August 2019

Interview: Ahmed Adel, EgyptAir Chairman


Full article in PDF format: page 22-24 & cover

Like any state-owned flag carrier, EgyptAir’s fortunes are tied inexorably to those of its home nation. That has translated to heavy losses and weak demand in recent years as the country was buffeted by successive waves of political and security unrest.

Two devastating air disasters – the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 and the still unexplained crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 – only added to the airline’s troubles.

However, with improved security and renewed investment under President Abdel Fattah el Sisi, optimism is rising on to the streets of Cairo.

Large-scale projects like the Grand Egyptian Museum and a new high-speed rail network are fuelling hopes of a happier future – one in which both locals and foreigners can travel across this ancient land without fear of violence or persecution...

Interview: Naji Majdalani, Wings of Lebanon CEO


Full article in PDF format

As a charter carrier with just one aircraft on its registry, Wings of Lebanon rarely gets the media attention that is afforded to larger, better known airlines in the Middle East.

The company has found itself in the spotlight only twice in recent memory – and management would happily forget both instances.

In 2016, a Boeing 737 carrying the Wings name was photographed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. The sighting sparked outrage in a country that officially remains at war with the Jewish state, and whose leaders are deeply paranoid about Israeli intelligence operations.

Then, last year, Wings had its European Union licence suspended after regulators flagged a series of apparent shortcomings in its flight training and aircraft maintenance processes...

Wednesday 1 May 2019

Interview: Rammah Ettir, Medavia CEO


Full article in PDF format

Until 2014, when Tripoli International Airport was razed to the ground by warring militias, Mediterranean Aviation Company Ltd (Medavia) conducted most of its aircraft maintenance work in Libya’s capital.

Relocating its operational facility to Malta, the Mediterranean island situated 350km north of Tripoli, was a difficult but logical response to the security crisis. Medavia had been set up in 1978 by the governments of Libya and Malta, and the European island already hosted its management headquarters as well as a base maintenance station.

Despite losing one aircraft to the violence and sacrificing much of its revenue for evacuation flights, the company has adapted well to the challenges of recent years...

New doors open at Nesma


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Ashraf Lamloum knew he was taking a risk in 2016, when he opened a base in Jeddah and launched narrow-body flights under the Nesma Airlines brand.

The chief executive was taking advantage of the long-awaited liberalisation of domestic air transport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which had for years been dominated by just two airlines: flag-carrier Saudia and Flynas. Another two carriers – SaudiGulf and Flyadeal – were also granted licences around the same time.

From day one, Nesma KSA struggled to make a profit on the busy Jeddah to Riyadh trunk route...

Friday 1 February 2019

Interview: Talal Abdulkarim, Syrian Arab Airlines CEO


Full article in PDF format

Syrian Arab Airlines provoked a curious mixture of applause and raised eyebrows at the annual meeting of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) in Cairo in November, when chief executive, Talal Abdulkarim, urged the industry group to hold its next get-together in Damascus.

The Syrian capital would not have been the first venue to spring to mind when AACO began making plans for its 2019 meeting. In all honesty, it was probably dead last.

Syria has been torn apart by eight years of brutal civil war that began with an Arab Spring uprising but quickly morphed into a multi-faceted battle between regional governments, world powers and a spectrum of rebel groups – most notorious among them the fanatical Islamists of Daesh, who at one point controlled roughly half the country...

Pichler flies the flag against the high threat of low-cost


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Ryanair’s decision to launch 14 routes to Jordan last year could easily have been a disaster for Royal Jordanian Airlines, the country’s flag-carrier.

Only two other Middle Eastern and North African nations – Israel and Morocco – have experienced a large-scale influx of low-cost airlines from Europe. The flag-carriers of both countries struggled financially when their markets opened up to no-frills competition.

Yet, despite facing the same headwinds, Royal Jordanian delivered an 87% rise in net profits in the first nine months of last year, accelerating the turnaround launched by new chief executive Stefan Pichler...

Thursday 1 November 2018

Syphax back from the dead


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Mohamed Frikha could not have picked a worse time to establish his airline than 2011, the year in which Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in a popular revolt that served as the spark for the Arab Spring uprisings.

Although it seemed like a period of renewal and change in Tunisia – and, indeed, the North African country has fared much better than its neighbours in the years that have followed – fortune was not smiling on Syphax.

Flag-carrier Tunisair threw down the first hurdle by instructing its ground-handling division to block its rival’s very first flight. Then airspace in Libya – a vital market for any Tunisian airline – was shut down as that country spiralled into civil war. Soon after, a pair of Daesh terror attacks targeting holidaymakers in Tunis and Sousse decimated tourism demand in Tunisia. And finally, technical problems with the airline’s Airbus A330 grounded its only long-haul route to Montreal.

“We did not have luck,” Frikha shrugs...

Interview: Nevzat Arşan, AtlasGlobal CCO


Full article in PDF format

AtlasGlobal’s chairman, Murat Ersoy, turned heads last year when he pledged to create an alliance of nine different airlines spread across the world.

The Turkish carrier’s appetite for overseas subsidiaries was not by itself surprising. The company rebranded from AtlasJet in 2015 to underline its global aspirations, and it already holds shares in three such ventures: AtlasGlobal Ukraine, Iraq’s ZagrosJet and Kazakhstan’s Jet One.

But the scale of the plan – and its focus on protected markets like Saudi Arabia and Russia – shocked many, particularly given the difficulties that Ersoy has encountered with his existing subsidiaries...

Wednesday 1 August 2018

Interview: Abdulaziz Al Raisi, Oman Air CEO


Full article in PDF format: page 19-22 & cover

Like the Gulf super-connectors, Oman Air carries more than two-thirds of its passengers on transfer flights over its hub. This sixth-freedom model allows the flag-carrier to surpass the limitations of its home market, unlocking routes and frequencies that could never be sustained by Oman’s population of just 4.8 million.

Unlike its better-known neighbours in the UAE and Qatar, however, the Muscat-based airline is now rolling back its reliance on transfer traffic.

New chief executive Abdulaziz Al Raisi is targeting a 50/50 split between connecting flows and point-to-point flows within a couple of years, and he wants to achieve this even as Oman Air accelerates the growth of its fleet and network.

“With sixth-freedom traffic you are going into competition with a lot of giant airlines, big players. It’s very hard for us as a small airline to survive in that market,” Al Raisi explained...

Interview: Mehmet Nane, Pegasus CEO


Full article in PDF format

Pegasus Airlines strengthened its recovery in the first quarter of this year, lifting passenger numbers by 18% as holidaymakers in Western Europe and Russia rekindled their love affair with Turkish resorts.

The positive result comes just two years after the low-cost carrier sunk to a rare loss amid a perfect storm of Daesh terror attacks, a failed military coup and a diplomatic row with Russia. Fears of a lengthy downturn were dispelled by last year’s profit, and with demand still growing chief executive Mehmet Nane is in bullish mood about the airline’s prospects.

Despite his newfound optimism, however, the challenges facing developing nations in general and Turkey in particular loom large at Pegasus...

Tuesday 1 May 2018

Interview: Bilal Ekşi, Turkish Airlines CEO


Full article in PDF format

Bilal Ekşi knew he was in for a rough ride when he took on the role of Turkish Airlines (THY) chief executive in October 2016.

His predecessor, Temel Kotil, had won countless accolades during his time in office, presiding over a decade of rapid expansion and rising prestige for the super-connector airline. By the time of Kotil’s departure, however, events were conspiring against both the flag-carrier and its home nation.

A failed coup d'état, a wave of terror attacks by Daesh, and a regional slowdown in demand were setting the scene for THY’s first annual loss in recent memory...

Thursday 1 February 2018

Interview: Stefan Pichler, Royal Jordanian Airlines CEO


Full article in PDF format

When Royal Jordanian Airlines ran a series of advertisements mocking Donald Trump, the US President, and making light of his laptop ban for Middle Eastern flights, many of the people sharing its messages on social media had never even heard of the airline – let alone flown with it.

Despite flying its country’s flag for more than half a century, Royal Jordanian still lacks the scale and brand recognition of its Gulf competitors. It has also become a financial burden on the government of Jordan, its 26% shareholder, posting net losses in four of the six years since the Arab Spring.

New chief executive Stefan Pichler admits that regional instability has held the airline back. Neighbouring Syria used to be a major source of connecting traffic before civil war closed its skies, while routes to Iraq, Libya and Yemen were also abandoned when violence flared in their borders. Surrounded by conflict, Jordan’s own tourism sector has nosedived as Westerners steer clear of what they perceive to be a dangerous neighbourhood...

Interview: Ilyes Mnakbi, Tunisair CEO


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The European Union’s delegation to Tunisia could not have struck a more optimistic tone in December, when EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc met with officials in Tunis to conclude negotiations over the looming Open Skies treaty between the two sides.

Tunisia’s government has been inching towards the treaty for several years, emboldened by the success of Morocco’s deal with the EU in 2006. That landmark agreement saw tourist arrivals rocketing by 60% over five years, propelled by an influx of European low-cost carriers to the country’s popular holiday resorts. Tunisia’s treaty, Bulc predicted, will be no less transformative...