Interview: Saloua Essghaier, Tunisair President

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To many international observers, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution is best known as the catalyst for the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa – popular demonstrations which, by and large, fell short of their lofty aspirations.

But, for Tunisians, the legacy of the Jasmine Revolution is much rosier. The country last year held its first open and democratic election since independence from France in 1956, swearing in 88-year-old Beji Caid Essebsi as its new president.

The Economist hailed the vote as “proof of a precious truth: the Arab world can change for the better, and Islam can be reconciled with democracy”. Such idealism may be hard to stomach when considering the disastrous effects of the Arab Spring elsewhere – unleashing civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and replacing one dictator with another in Egypt – but it is a kernel of hope that must be preserved...

Interview: Ulrich Ogiermann, Qatar Airways Chief Cargo Officer

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Ulrich Ogiermann successfully steered Cargolux, Europe's largest cargo carrier, through troubled times. But, as Martin Rivers discovers, the industry veteran has found an even greater challenge at growth-obsessed Qatar Airways.

Following years of uncorroborated allegations against the Gulf's fast-expanding carriers, the release of a 55-page dossier detailing $42 billion of government subsidies over ten years has put the region's big three operators firmly on the defensive.

Qatar Airways is front and centre in the dispute, facing accusations by America's Partnership for Open & Fair Skies – a lobby group headed by three US legacy carriers – that it has benefited from $16 billion of unfair state support...

Interview: Rasha Al Roumi, Kuwait Airways Chairwoman

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Readers would have been forgiven for voicing scepticism in May 2013, when Kuwait Airways unveiled a comprehensive fleet renewal programme involving 25 aircraft purchases and 12 interim leases.

That the loss-making flag-carrier sorely needed modernisation was questioned by no-one – most of its existing 18 aircraft dated back to the early 1990s – but Kuwaiti politicians have a long history of meddling with, and ultimately derailing, its plans.

In 2007, most controversially, the government scrapped a newly placed order for 12 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and seven Airbus A320s. Then, in 2013, incumbent chairman Sami Al Nesf was fired for defying parliament’s wishes and trying to acquire five aircraft from India’s Jet Airways...

Royal Air Maroc raises the standard

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News that Royal Air Maroc grew its African traffic by 16% over the 12 months to October 2014 – transporting 1.3 million passengers across the continent – might seem perplexing against a backdrop of both the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and regional instability in North Africa.

There is no denying that Morocco’s flag-carrier is heavily exposed to the Ebola crisis, serving about 30 West African destinations, including the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Its home base in the Maghreb region of North Africa also places the airline in a volatile neighbourhood wracked first by the Arab Spring and now by a series of deepening Islamist insurgencies.

Yet despite the turmoil engulfing both sub-regions, Royal Air Maroc is not only expanding on the continent but, more remarkably, it is doing so while turning over a profit...

Interview: Abdul Wahab Teffaha, AACO Secretary General

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Whatever AACO's executive committee was planning for this year's annual general meeting (AGM), their agenda has been torn asunder by two catastrophic events still gripping the airline industry.

Malaysia Airlines cruelly bore the brunt of both disasters – the loss, literally, of MH370 in March, and the shooting down of MH17 in July – but all aviation stakeholders now face the grave responsibility of plugging safety gaps and improving regulatory protocols. No region is more burdened with this collective duty than the Middle East, whose fast-expanding airlines operate in the most volatile of neighbourhoods.

At the same time, though, more familiar concerns still weigh heavily on the region's airlines. In European capitals, increasingly protectionist measures are being called on to fight Gulf competition; in Arab capitals, the 2004 Damascus Convention is falling well short of its promise to liberalise Middle Eastern skies...

Libya starts again

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In early 2012, shortly after Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown by an alliance of tribal militias, Libyan Airlines chief executive Khaled Taynaz spoke to Arabian Aerospace about the prospects for the war-weary country and its well-developed civil aviation sector.

Though careful not to downplay the challenges ahead, Taynaz painted an overwhelmingly positive picture for the future. His mood matched the broader sentiment sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring.

Just two years on, however, events on the ground seem anything but upbeat. The revolutions that engulfed the region have largely evolved into new dictatorships or entrenched civil warfare; many of the militias that united against despots are now turning their guns on each other; and the worrisome security climate has struck fear in the hearts of western governments, which are now mobilising their own forces for potential conflict...

Iran Air's open door

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On November 24 2014, exactly one year after the signing of the historic Geneva Interim Agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, talks between Tehran and the P5+1 countries (America, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany) will formally come to a close.

The dream of a comprehensive deal that normalises relations between Iran and the West still faces immense challenges, weighed down as it is by three decades of open hostilities. Public opinion on both sides remains divided, and the backdrop of a deepening security crisis in the Middle East has injected new complexities. The original, mutually-postponed deadline of 20 July passed without apparent progress.

But, if rapprochement prevails, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and US President Barack Obama will leave a legacy of renewed economic cooperation between the two countries. Iran’s civil aviation sector and America’s aerospace manufacturing industries stand to be among the main beneficiaries...

Interview: Mohamed Frikha, Syphax Airlines Chairman

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In an aviation market as heavily regulated as Tunisia, Mohamed Frikha, the founder and chairman of Syphax Airlines, fully anticipated that his start-up would encounter push-back from existing players when it launched in April 2012.

Sure enough, on the very first day of operations at Tunis Carthage International Airport, Syphax’s passengers were turned away by staff from the ground-handling division of flag-carrier Tunisair.

The debacle marked a rocky start for the fledgling privately-owned airline, and it was not to be an isolated occurrence. Over the months that followed Tunisair’s former chief executive, Rabah Jrad, repeatedly accused his competitor of “illegal and unfair” business practices. Though undoubtedly a headache, this opposition ultimately failed to deter Frikha from injecting competition into the sector...

Pegasus harnesses the best of both worlds

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When Pegasus Airlines was acquired by ESAS Holdings and re-branded as a low-cost carrier (LCC) in 2005, the airline’s incoming management team were faced with an immediate strategic dilemma.

On the one hand, their home nation of Turkey was poised to embark on a decade of break-neck civil aviation growth matched in scale and ambition only by the Gulf mega-hubs. Istanbul’s geographical location at the crossroads of three continents was enabling Turkish Airlines (THY), the country’s flag-carrier, to transform Istanbul Atatürk Airport into one of the world’s pre-eminent intercontinental hub-and-spoke networks.

On the other hand, across Turkey's western border with Europe, LCC giants Ryanair and EasyJet were perfecting the art of ultra-low-cost travel, tearing up the rulebook for hub economics and unlocking the full potential of the point-to-point business model...

Interview: Temel Kotil, Turkish Airlines CEO

Full article in PDF format: page 71-74 & cover

When Turkey’s government lowered its stake in Turkish Airlines (THY) to 49% in May 2006, the national carrier had fewer than 100 aircraft in its fleet and was operating an average of 460 flights per day.

Roughly half of those services were domestic flights, with the airline having enjoyed a monopoly on internal sectors for almost all of its seven-decade-long history.

But, following its transition to private hands, THY’s fleet has ballooned to 235 aircraft; its flight count has reached 1,200 per day; and its home market has been transformed into a vibrant, competitive landscape where the flag-carrier provides barely half of all domestic capacity.

This remarkable growth took less than a decade to achieve, and Kotil said a similar timeframe must now pass before THY even considers slowing down...

Interview: Larry Coyne, Coyne Airways CEO

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With the air cargo industry struggling to maintain yields in the face of rampant over-capacity, Coyne Airways presents an intriguing vision of how freighter markets may evolve over time.

The London-headquartered airline does not own or lease any aircraft, and it eschews the hub-to-hub distribution model favoured by most global cargo operators.

Instead, Coyne Airways enlists the services of various partner carriers to build a scheduled network through recurrent Block Space Agreements and interline deals. By reserving part or all of the space on other airlines' freighters, the company has developed specialised hubs in Dubai and Tbilisi that connect Europe, North America and Asia with countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan...

Interview: Ahmed Aly, Nile Air CEO

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When Nile Air was publicly unveiled at the 2007 Dubai Air Show – at the height of the Gulf aviation buying spree – the Egyptian start-up signed a memorandum of understanding for nine Airbus A321s.

Seven years on, the Saudi-owned company operates a more modest fleet of two smaller A320s. Its launch coincided with the onset of a global financial crisis, followed by two successive political revolutions that decimated tourism to its home market.

But having weathered these storms, Nile Air is now charting a clear path to expansion. The airline continues to be shielded from the downturn by its diverse traffic mix, and it is gradually benefiting from Egypt's improved ties across the region...

Boeing to benefit if US sanctions lifted on Iran

Iran Air would place orders for either the Boeing 777 or the 787 Dreamliner if US sanctions were lifted permanently, chairman Farhad Parvaresh has told Arabian Aerospace.

"If the doors are opened and we can order, we should decide between 777 and Dreamliner," he said on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Doha. "The 777 would be a good aircraft for us, as it is for some of our neighbours [in the Persian Gulf]."

The 747-8 will also be evaluated, although fuel consumption by the four-engine aircraft raises questions about its commercial suitability.

Interview: Abdulhakim Fares, Afriqiyah Airways Chairman

Afriqiyah shelves Libyan merger amid upsurge in violence

Afriqiyah Airways and Libyan Airlines have suspended plans for a merger as the two flag carriers' home market struggles to contain a simmering civil war.

"We are not working on this [merger] right now," Afriqiyah chairman Abdulhakim Fares said on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Doha. "We are working together as friends, not competing. They [Afriqiyah and Libyan] may stay separate for some time."

Asked if the two companies – both subsidiaries of Libyan Afriqiyah Aviation Holding Company – will be merged by the end of the decade, Fares responded: "It's impossible to say."

Interview: Adel Ali, Air Arabia CEO

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As the Gulf's other low-cost carriers shift towards a hybrid business model, Air Arabia is standing by its decidedly no-frills approach. Chief executive Adel Ali explains why to Martin Rivers.

Middle Eastern low-cost carriers (LCCs) continued their unstoppable march in 2013, growing seat capacity by another 17.7% during the first half of the year.

But in a region where double-digit growth has become the norm, their expansion amounts to only modest inroads by the still-fledgling sector. LCCs today account for just 13.5% of Middle Eastern traffic, compared with nearly 40% in the more mature European market...

Interview: Ahmad Alzabin, ALAFCO CEO

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Kuwait’s flag-carrier may be on life support, but the emirate has still produced a major success story for Gulf aviation. Martin Rivers meets Ahmad Alzabin, chief executive of Kuwaiti leasing firm ALAFCO.

The announcement by Kuwait Airways that it has signed a contract to purchase 25 aircraft and lease a further 12 was, on the surface, a welcome step forward by the heavily loss-making flag-carrier.

Airbus will deliver 15 A320neos and ten A350-900s over an unspecified timeframe, Kuwait Airways said in December, while also facilitating 12 short-term leases beginning in the second quarter of 2014. For an airline whose average aircraft age is 19 years, the long-awaited order would breathe new life into its fuel-guzzling fleet...

Interview: Wayne Pearce, Oman Air CEO

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Perched on the south-eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula – with the United Arab Emirates just across its border – the large, sparsely populated sultanate of Oman exists in an aviation neighbourhood dominated by mega-hub expansion.

Unlike Dubai or Abu Dhabi, however, Muscat has little interest in becoming a major bridging point between East and West. The Omani capital’s airport handled just 7.5 million passengers last year, and although officials want to grow that figure, sixth-freedom traffic looks set to remain a peripheral contributor...

Interview: Marwan Boodai, Jazeera Airways Chairman

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When Jazeera Airways posted an annual loss of KD8.2 million ($28.4 million) in 2009, the outlook appeared bleak for Kuwait’s fledging private aviation sector.

The emirate’s much-vaunted liberalisation drive had now produced two struggling private carriers – also including Wataniya Airways, which was months away from bankruptcy – and flag carrier Kuwait Airways continued its two-decade-long run of almost uninterrupted annual losses.

For Jazeera chairman Marwan Boodai, however, the finger of blame was pointing squarely outside of Kuwait. He believed that larger regional competitors were dumping capacity in the emirate in order to re-route traffic through their own hubs. The success of Jazeera’s subsequent turnaround plan appears to have validated that judgement...

Interview: Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports CEO

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Dubai World Central will be the world’s largest airport when it is completed in the mid-2020s. But Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths tells Martin Rivers that the future aerotropolis is about much more than scale.

When Concourse A opened at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in January 2013, the benefits of travelling through the purpose-built Airbus A380 facility were immediately apparent to passengers. As well as allowing Business and First Class customers to board aircraft direct from their lounges, the 11-floor concourse features two hotels and 11,000 sq m of retail space. It has cemented DXB's status as the world's foremost A380 hub, with the airport handling 7,259 of the double-decker flights last year...

Interview: Thierry Antinori, Emirates CCO

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Few people familiar with the history of Emirates Airline will have been surprised by news that the Dubai flag-carrier plans to more than double its US network over the next five years.

For an airline that receives an average of one Airbus A380 each month – not to mention its growing fleet of Boeing 777-300s – expansion has become the norm. Emirates today serves 135 destinations across 77 countries, with its steady stream of route launches most recently including Angeles in the Philippines, Conakry in Guinea and Sialkot in Pakistan.

But growth of the network only tells part of the story. As Emirates gears up for its widely-expected 777X order at the Dubai Air Show in November, chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori is turning his focus to in-flight enhancements tailored for this new breed of wide-body aircraft...