The inaugural Routes Middle East & Africa (MEA) took place in Bahrain from May 31 to June 2, and was hosted by Bahrain Airport Company.
Designed to build on the success of the regional Routes Africa 2014 event Routes MEA brought together more 300 delegates from across Africa and the Middle East to meet and discuss route opportunities across the region.
The event delivered aviation thought leaders from across Africa and the Middle East to discuss industry issues and the future of aviation within these regions. The interactive conference presented delegates with the opportunity to join these talks and hear from some of the most senior aviation specialists from the Middle East and Africa.
AIR ARABIA
The recent formation and launch of Air Arabia Jordan is unlikely to be the last incarnation of the Air Arabia brand and group chief executive officer, Adel Ali, suggested that there are many market opportunities for the airline group to expand beyond its existing operations in the UAE, Egypt, Morocco and the Kingdom of Jordan.
Speaking during the Routes Middle East & Africa forum in Bahrain, Ali said it is clear that countries across the Middle East and Africa look very differently at the economic impact of a liberalised air service market and what opportunity it offers, citing Kuwait and Jordan as good examples of destination markets that have seen tremendous success from more relaxed regulation. “In the past nobody flew to the countries, remove the restrictions and now everybody is flying there, carrying many passengers and stimulating demand,” he said.
The respected airline executive said that open skies is perhaps not the right term to describe liberalisation as “the skies have always been open”. The challenge, he noted was for “airports to open up” and let airlines take advantage of the free skies. “Every Middle East government says ‘we want more flights but...’ It’s time to remove the ‘but’,” he added.
Air Arabia appears to have no plans to enter the long-haul market and will stick to its single aircraft fleet concept that has enabled it to grow from Sharjah International Airport and its other bases across Arabia.
“Africa is one of the places where we see huge potential, but it has to change a lot to prosper,” he said and added that markets in the Continent are “thin” and thus they “need time” to prosper and make money.
FLYNAS
Saudi Arabian carrier flynas is prepared for growing competition in its home market from new entrants Al Maha Airways and Saudi Gulf Airlines and it is confident that a recent restructuring of the business under its former management team will put it in a strong position to continue its development.
The airline, formerly known as NasAir, carried record passenger levels in 2014, but beyond that growth, structural and mindset changes to the business have helped it adjust to the market as it has switched to a tighter low-cost model and single type
aircraft fleet.
“It is not so much having the label of a low-cost carrier, but the ability to think like a low-cost carrier,” said Paul Byrne, chief executive officer, flynas, on the sidelines of this year’s inaugural Routes Middle East & Africa forum.
The long-awaited arrival of new entrants into Saudi Arabian domestic skies is set to take place before the end of the year, bringing new competition in what for a long time has been a highly regulated market dominated by the Kingdom’s state-controlled national carrier, Saudia and more recently also served by flynas, one of the fastest growing operators in the Middle East region.
“Bring it on,” said Byrne on the subject of increased competition in the Saudi Arabian market. “Competition is not something new for us. In fact, we currently only serve one route in the country that has no direct competition, that is less than one per cent of our network. We have become accustomed to competition and it is something we do not fear,” he added.
Growth for the carrier will be primarily in the domestic market but Byrne acknowledges a need to grow flynas’ activities in international markets. “We need to do more flying within the Gulf Cooperation Council,” said Byrne, but he ruled out a return to long-haul flying for the carrier.
UAE AIRPORTS
A staggering Dh120 billion worth of investment has been placed in airport development in the UAE, whose airports handled more than 101 million passengers last year, including 71 million by Dubai International Airport, according to Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) and Chairman of Dubai Airports.
Sheikh Ahmed, who is also the chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group and chairman of Dubai World Central Corporation, said the investments were being made to meet the rising demand of passengers and cargo movements as the UAE emerges as the most-ideal global travel hub.
By 2022, the world’s biggest airport will become a reality in the shape of Dubai World Central (DWC), of which Al Maktoum International Airport is a key component.
When fully complete, the DWC will handle 220 million passengers. A planned expansion of Al Maktoum International’s passenger terminal will boost the airport’s capacity to reach a total of 26 million passengers per year by 2017.
The opening of Concourse D at the Dubai International Airport this year as part of a $7.8 billion expansion programme is expected to boost the airport’s capacity to over 100 million passengers annually by 2020 when Dubai hosts the World Expo. Aviation’s contribution to Dubai’s economy will increase to $88 billion by the year 2030.