issue 96 mar 2015 official monthly bulletin of aacobetween tabuk and cairo starting from 30 march...

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 Official Monthly Bulletin of AACO

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GLOBAL ARAB AVIATION

SPREADING OUT p: 30

REGULATORY TONE p: 42

AN AVIATION MARKET IN FOCUS: ITALY p: 44

WORLD NEWS p: 46

PARTNER AIRLINES p: 50 - 59

INDUSTRY PARTNERS p: 60 - 87

AACO & RTC CALENDARS p: 88 - 91

AACO MEMBERS & PARTNERS p: 92 - 95

Issue 96 - Mar 2015

AVIATION WITHIN THE ARAB WORLD

GROWTH p: 12

TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE p: 21

TRAINING p: 22

MRO p: 24

Arab world marks an increase of 4.1%in January 2015 in international passen-ger numbers - p. 9

Emirates Group Security signs MoU with AACO to extend University Diploma Pro-grammes - p. 22

UAE ranks number 1 globally in avia-tion safety standards - p. 47

Daily news on www.aaco.org

LAURELS p: 20

TOURISM p: 37ARAB AIRLINES ECONOMICS p: 13

ENVIRONMENT p: 40EXPANSION p: 17

ARAB AIRPORTS p: 24

ATM p: 27

COLLABORATION p: 38NEW APPOINTMENTS p: 17

As a strategic initiative to broad-en the platform of education in aviation security and ground handling, the Arab Air Carriers Organization signed an MoU with Emirates Group Security to ex-tend two University Diploma Pro-grammes. The University Diploma in Aviation Security Management and the University Diploma in Ground Handling are being in-ducted as part of AACO RTC’s training curriculum in Jordan and Egypt. These two diplomas are jointly developed by Edith Cowan University of Western Australia and Emirates Group Security.

Looking at the latest develop-ments during the past month in the Arab air transport industry, various 2014 figures have been announced by four Arab airlines, whereby, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) ended 2014 with a traffic increase of 6% compared to 2013 where the airline carried more than 6 million passengers on board 67,100 flights. flydubai revenues in 2014 reached USD 1.2 billion of which USD 68 million is a net profit, while Air Arabia’s 2014 full year net profit climbed by 30% to reach USD 154.09 million. Tunisair as well announced an increase in revenues of 0.81% in 2014 compared to 2013.

Foreword

Daily news on www.aaco.org Issue 96 - Mar 2015 5

Airlines in the region also announced several plans to enhance and boost connectivity in the Arab world. Air Arabia added Qatar to its destinations originating from Ras Al Khaimah, while Qatar Airways debuted its B787 Dreamliner in Tunisia. Saudia launched direct flights between Jeddah and Al-Ula, and plans to start operating direct flights between Tabuk and Cairo starting from 30 March 2015. It’s worth mentioning that passenger traffic between the KSA and Egypt wit-nessed a record growth in 2014, reaching 1,805,491 passengers in both directions who were transported on board 9,956 scheduled and non-scheduled flights. Details on routes connecting the Arab world with other regions are available on page 31. In addition, page 19 dis-plays the latest fleet data of AACO members that are deployed on routes within the Arab world and with other regions; the figures show that 41 new aircraft entered into service between November 2014 and January 2015.

Also, aiming at increasing travel choices to the travellers, Arab airlines continue to bolster relations with other airlines, whereby, Royal Air Maroc will provide its passengers with new destinations in the US by codesharing on JetBlue flights to 22 destinations; Qatar Airways also enhanced its codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways with the addition of further codeshare routes; while Etihad Airways and Air Seychelles added more codeshare routes to their agreement.

As for airports, some Arab airports issued figures last month on the number of passengers handled in 2014. King Fahd International Air-port transported 8.5 million passengers in 2014; an increase of 12% compared to 2013 numbers; whereas, King Abdulaziz International Airport handled a record of 28 million passengers in 2014, a 5.6% in-crease over 2013 figures. Air passenger numbers at Muscat and Sa-lalah airports grew in 2014 by 13% and 5% respectively. The new Ha-mad International Airport (HIA) announced a 13% passenger growth in 2014 in comparison to 2013. This means over three million more passengers travelled using Doha’s airport in 2014 compared to 2013; noting that HIA operations were inaugurated in May 2014. In the UAE, passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport increased by 20.7% in January 2015. Also, January 2015 was a record month in the

Aviation in the Arab World

Issue 96 - Mar 2015Daily news on www.aaco.org 7

number of passengers handled at Dubai International Airport, which reached 6.89 million passengers while DWC’s freight volumes surged by 262.5% to reach 758,371 tons in 2014 compared to 209,209 tons in 2013; noting that the completion of the shift of all freighter opera-tors from DXB to DWC in May 2014 triggered this massive surge. With the growth of the UAE air traffic that is expected to rise from 2,200 flight movements a day in 2014 to 5,100 flight movements in 2030, the UAE GCAA launched a major en-route and flow management ini-tiative with Airbus ProSky.

Separately, according to UNWTO forecasts, by 2030 the MENA region could receive 195 million tourist arrivals (almost triple the present volume of 70 million tourists) benefiting both established and emerg-ing destinations. Moreover, the UNWTO stated that governments are further recognising the benefits of visa facilitation; noting that this is-sue is one of the main hindrances standing against stimulating further air travel demand within the Arab world. According to the UNWTO report, 62% of the world’s population was required a traditional visa prior to departure in 2014, down from 77% in 2008. In 2014 too, 19% of the world’s population was able to enter a destination without a visa, while 16% could receive a visa on arrival, as compared to 17% and 6% in 2008.

Meanwhile in the US, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is due to issue a proposed determination of whether carbon pollution from aircraft endangers public health or welfare in May. The US avia-tion sector and environmental groups are voicing their different posi-tions in open letters to the agency and the FAA.

Globally, The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s Univer-sal Safety Oversight Audit Programme ranked the UAE as the highest in the world in compliance with international aviation safety stan-dards after intensive audit. The UAE scored a success rate of 98.86%, which is the highest rate in history given by ICAO.

We focus on the Italian aviation market in this issue. With a popula-tion of 60.78 million people, more than 115 million passengers used Italian airports in 2013, creating a ratio of 1.89:1 of passengers to population. The Italian aviation market linked 217 cities worldwide in January 2015, whereby the highest share of traffic of Italy is with Europe (more than 84% of total traffic share between Italy and other regions) with London-Milan city pair having the highest number of seats offered from Italy in January 2015. More details are available on page 44.



OVERALL TRAFFIC - ARAB WORLDWe estimate international passenger numbers to, from, & within the Arab world to have grown by 4.1% in January 2015 compared to Janu-ary 2014, which follows an increase of 8.8% in December 2014 com-pared to December 2013.

In January 2015, AACO members increased the number of their of-fered seats to, from, and within the Arab world by 18.9%, while other airlines decreased their number of seats offered by (10.8%), leading to 10.4% year-on-year increase in the total number of seats offered.

Source: AACO, IATA *Estimated

Happened in 1965On 25 August 1965 the bylaws of AACO were signed by the following member airlines, at that time:• Royal Jordanian• Sudan Airways• Iraqi Airways• Saudia• Syrian Arab Airlines• United Arab Airlines• Misrair• Yemenia• Kuwait Airways• Middle East Airlines• Air Liban• Lebanese International Airways• Trans Mediterranean Airways

Sudan Airways Comet at London - LHR airport in 1965

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Monthly International Passenger Numbers' Change To, From and Within the Arab World Feb14 to Jan15* compared to same month in previous year

YoY Growth 12-Month Average Growth

Effect of Ramadan

AVIATIONWITHIN THEARAB WORLD

Passenger numbers within the Arab world reported a 6.6% increase between November 14 & January 15* compared to same period in the previous year.



PASSENGER TRAFFICInternational passenger numbers within the Arab world are estimated to have grown by 5.1% in January 2015 compared to January 2014. This follows an increase of 7.9% in December 2014 over December 2013. However, the recent developments that are taking place in Libya are behind the decrease in passenger traffic within North Africa, as highlighted below.

GROWTH

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 13

Passenger traffic within the Arab World Jan 15* over Jan 14Within Arabian Peninsula 8.9%Within Near East 19.1%Within North Africa (56.4%)Between Arabian Peninsula & Near East 13.7%Between the Near East and North Africa (22.3%)Between Arabian Peninsula & North Africa (3%)



Passenger numbers within the Arab world reported a 7.2% growth between October 14 & December 14 compared to same period in the previous year.


ARAB AIRLINES ECONOMICSRoyal Air Maroc reports strong performance in 2014: Royal Air Maroc (RAM) ended 2014 with a traffic increase of 6% compared to 2013. In 2014, RAM car-ried more than 6 million passengers on board 67,100 flights. Nearly 5.4 million passengers were carried on RAM international flights during 2014.Traffic increase was achieved despite the difficult and highly competitive en-vironment. Total seats offered by airlines operating to and from the Moroc-can market grew by 10% in 2014, while air passenger traffic witnessed a 6.7% growth in 2014 compared to 2013.Furthermore, RAM expanded its fleet by acquiring 4 Embraer E-190s and a B787-8 Dreamliner. Currently, RAM has a fleet of 52 aircraft.Moreover, RAM has signed several agreements to enhance its operations. The company signed a partnership agreement with the Italian operator Trenitalia Railways to provide RAM passengers with discounts on TGV tickets in Italy. RAM signed an interline agreement with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes to offer new connection opportunities for travelers between Morocco and Latin America. From 1 November 2014, Terminal 2 at Mohammed V International Airport became dedicated for RAM international flights.In 2014 RAM launched new routes from Casablanca to each of Sao Paulo, Tenerife, Munich, N’Djamena, Montpelier, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Errachidia, Zagora, and Tetouan. RAM has also launched routes connecting Marrakech to each of London Gatwick, Madrid, Milan, and Genève. A route connecting Béni Mellal with Milan was also launched. RAM Cargo launched four all-cargo routes from Casablanca to Dakar, Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey.RAM also plans to launch a new route between Tangier and Gibraltar in March

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Monthly International Passenger Numbers' Change Within the Arab World Feb14 to Jan15* compared to same month in previous year


Effect of Ramadan

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within N East within NAfrica N East

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International Passenger Numbers' Change Within the Arab WorldOct14-Dec14 & Nov14-Jan15* compared to same period in previous year

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2015, following an agreement between the airline and the Department of Transport of Gibraltar. The new route will connect Europe with Africa in less than 30 minutes.RAM currently serves 87 destinations in 48 countries.

Emirates’ operations in Europe: A €6.8 billion impact on GDP: Emirates and Frontier Economics released the results of a socio-economic impact study that measures Emirates’ contribution to the European economy. Frontier estimates that Emirates’ operations, including the catalytic impact of the 220 unique connections it offers, supported 85,100 jobs across the EU in 2013/14, equivalent to €6.8 billion GDP of the total EU GDP. In addition, Emir-ates’ Airbus A380 deliveries for the same period supported 41,000 jobs, equiv-alent to €3.4 billion GDP. “Emirates is fully committed to the European market. The relationship goes back to 1987 when we first started flying from Dubai to London Gatwick. Since then, we have witnessed growth based on demand and now operate over 350 passenger flights a week from Europe, providing global connectivity via our hub in Dubai,” commented Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline. “Emir-ates’ economic impact is significant; based on Frontier’s report, we supported over one hundred thousand jobs across Europe through our operations and our aircraft purchases from Airbus. By stimulating demand for travel and car-go, especially in markets underserved by other airlines, Emirates contributes to the economies of the communities we serve.” The study conducted by Frontier demonstrates that Emirates’ presence in 28 European cities significantly contributes to regional development, especially in non-hub markets that have traditionally been overlooked by other carriers. “Some of Emirates’ competitors have in the past accused the airline of hav-ing a negative impact on Europe, but the Frontier analysis paints a different picture. Our research shows that the direct, indirect and induced impact of Emirates’ operations and the development of connectivity to secondary cities in particular, makes a substantial contribution to EU GDP”, stated Dan Elliott, founder and Director of Frontier Economics. “The economic value this connec-tivity brings to the EU is at times underappreciated, and something that merits attention.” The Value of Connectivity: Traditionally, international travel from Europe in-volved flying from or often backtracking to one of the big European hubs. This contributed to a connectivity gap for other major European cities, restricting their ability to develop trade and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) opportuni-ties. Since launching services to Europe in 1987, Emirates has helped bridge this gap, by gradually and on the basis of demand, increasing services to major and secondary cities across Europe. The Frontier analysis, which covered 28 cities served by Emirates in 16 EU Member States, identified a total of 220 routes from Europe that are unique to Emirates. 21 of these are non-stop connections from European cities to Dubai, and the remaining 199 routes are unique one-stop connections, via Dubai.

Using any other airline or alliance on these unique routes would require at least one more additional stop. Considering the breadth of Emirates’ network and how air travel demand is expected to double in the next 5-10 years, Emirates is well positioned to bring a growing number of tourists and business travellers to Europe, further en-abling trade and investment. To read more about Emirates’ economic impact in the EU, please click here. *Including Emirates’ operations and the catalytic impact of the 220 unique connections it offers. To view the video click hereDownload Emirates’ Economic Impact in the EU - infographic

Emirates sees brand value grow for 4th consecutive year to USD 6.6 billion: Emirates has reached the top 200 of the world’s biggest brands for the first time, according to the 2015 Brand Finance Global 500 report released recently. For the fourth consecutive year, Emirates has steadily climbed the table of the top 500 most valuable brands in the world. Now sitting at #196, an increase of 38 spots in just 12 months, the airline attributes its success to a strong com-mitment to product and service excellence, as well as investments in its brand. Emirates’ estimated brand value has grown more than 21% from USD 5.48 bil-lion to USD 6.6 billion. The airline also retains its long standing position as the most valuable brand in the Middle East, and the most valuable airline brand.

Etihad Airways acquires majority stake in Alitalia’s Millemiglia frequent flyer program: Etihad Airways has acquired a 75% stake in Alitalia Loyalty S.p.A, the owner and operator of MilleMiglia, Alitalia’s frequent flyer program, with Ali-talia retaining the remaining 25% stake. Alitalia Loyalty will become part of Global Loyalty Company (GLC), a loyalty and lifestyle company that allows Etihad Airways and its partners to target the global loyalty market more effectively, whilst driving technology and back of-fice synergies. GLC also consists of Etihad Airways’ Etihad Guest, airberlin’s topbonus and Jet Airways’ JetPrivilege programs. Together, Etihad Guest, top-bonus, JetPrivilege and MilleMiglia have a combined total of 14 million mem-bers worldwide.

2014 sees flydubai achieve increased revenues of USD 1.2 billion up 19.1% and profits of USD 68 million: flydubai announced its Annual Results for 2014 and reported a net profit of USD 68 million an increase of 12.3% compared to 2013 with total revenue of USD 1.2 billion for the 12-month period, ending 31 December 2014.Operational Performance: flydubai carried 7.25 million passengers in 2014 and has carried 24.3 million since it launched its operations. It saw an increase in passenger numbers between 2013 and 2014 in Africa (14%), Central Asia (57%), Europe (11%) and the Subcontinent (11%).

http://www.emirates.com/english/about/int-and-gov-affairs/publications/economic-impact-studies.aspx

http://youtu.be/nh_HxUmVJbc

http://content.emirates.com/downloads/ek/pdfs/int_gov_affairs/EK_and_EU.pdf



EXPANSIONROUTES

Airline From To Date Weekly Freq. Aircraft Type

G9 Ras Al Khaimah Doha 22 Feb. 15 4x A320-200

QR Doha Tunisia 17 Feb. 15 7x B787

SVJeddah Al-Ula 26 Feb. 15 2x

N/ATabuk Cairo 30 Mar. 15 3x

NEW APPOINTMENTSSaudia Director General announces Mr. Jonaid as CEO of Saudia Airlines: H.E. Eng. Saleh Al Jasser, Director General of Saudia, appointed Mr. Abdulmohsen Jonaid as Chief Executive Officer of Saudia Airlines. Mr. Jonaid replaces Mr. Abdulziz Al Hazmi who was assigned to be the Senior Advisor to the Director General of Saudia.

In a year that saw the airline add 23 new routes, creating a network of 86 destinations, flydubai also increased frequency on many of its existing routes. Weekly flight frequencies to Beirut increased from 14 to 21, to Kuwait from 53 to 77, to Muscat from 28 to 41, to Salalah from 3 to 5 and Tbilisi which went to a daily service. The airline now operates 1,400 flights per week.Its network across its geographic focus grew by the number of routes in Africa (100%), in Central Asia (66%), Europe including Russia (40%), the GCC (7%), Middle East (30%) and in the Subcontinent (38%).All aircraft delivered since August 2013 have been configured with Business Class. flydubai took delivery of eight new Next-Generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft and ended the year with a fleet of 43 aircraft.In October, it completed to schedule its rolling retrofit programme to config-ure the existing aircraft in its fleet with Business Class. The first seven aircraft it received between 2009 and 2010 were not part of the retrofit programme.flydubai also enhanced the business class offering on the ground with the opening of the flydubai Business Lounge at Terminal 2, Dubai International. Moreover, flydubai continued to strengthen its experienced team increasing the number of staff to 2,883 including 571 pilots, 1,235 cabin crew and 221 engineers representing more than 111 nationalities across flydubai’s work-force.Cost Performance: Total revenue and operating income increased by 19.1% to USD 1.2 billion with a capacity increase (ASKM) of 9.3%.EBITDAR[1] growth is in line with the increase in revenue and is at a healthy rate of revenue at 22.1%.Fuel remains the single largest cost at 36% of the total operating costs and though lower than the previous year has benefited from the downward trend in fuel prices starting from the last quarter of 2014. Currently 30% of fuel re-quirements for 2015 are hedged.Other ancillary revenue items including inflight entertainment, onboard sales, seat preferences, checked baggage allowance, car rental, hotel bookings, trav-el insurance and visa facilitation services continue to be strong and comprise 14.4% of total revenue.flydubai continued its strategy to diversify its sources of funding. In November it issued a landmark debut Sukuk transaction successfully raising USD 500 mil-lion.[1]EBITDAR is calculated as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amor-tisation and rental costsSource: flydubai

Air Arabia 2014 full year net profit climbs 30%: Air Arabia announced its fi-nancial results for the full year ending 31 December 2014, reflecting another year of continued growth and high levels of profitability.Air Arabia reported a record net profit for the full year ending 31 December 2014 of USD 154.09 million, up 30% compared to USD 118.43 million for the same period in 2013. The airline’s turnover for the full year 2014 reached USD 1.01 billion, an increase of 17% on 2013, driven by increased passenger

numbers. Air Arabia carried over 6.8 million passengers in 2014, 12% more than 2013. The average seat load factor – or passengers carried as a percent-age of available seats – for the same period stood at 81%.These results were announced following a meeting of the Board of Directors of Air Arabia, who have proposed a dividend distribution of 9% of capital, which is equivalent to 2.45 US cents per share. This proposal is subject to ratification by the shareholders of Air Arabia at the company’s upcoming AGM.Air Arabia’s net profit for the fourth quarter, stood at USD 18.51 million, a drop of 28% compared to USD 25.59 million for the same period in 2013. The drop in the fourth quarter 2014 was mainly due to a temporary downward correc-tion in the fuel hedge portfolio, which will regain its benefits going forward. The airline’s turnover for the last quarter of 2014 was USD 251.56 million, an increase of 14% compared to USD 220.79 million reported for the same period in 2013. Passenger traffic for the fourth quarter 2014 reached 1.7 million, an increase of 8% compared to the same quarter of 2013.

Tunisair revenues increase in 2014: According to figures published by the Tu-nis Stock Exchange, the revenues of Tunisair reached USD 656 million in 2014, compared to USD 552 million in 2013, reflecting an increase of 0.81%.However, the number of passengers transported by Tunisair fell by 5.11% year-on-year, from 3,712,960 passengers in 2013 to 3,523,107 passengers in 2014.Tunisair’s load factor has improved, reaching 71.8% in 2014 compared to 70.5% in 2013.Source: The North Africa Post



CAPACITY AND DEMANDPassenger Air Services Within the Arab World - Jan. 2015 - SRS AnalyzerAACO members increased the number of seats offered within the Arab world by 17.5% in January 2015 compared to January 2014 whereas other airlines decreased that number by (47.1%), leading to an 8.3% year-on-year increase in the total number of seats offered within the Arab world.Available Seats within the Arab world for international and domestic routes constituted 24.6% and 10.2% respectively of the total available seats to, from, and within the Arab world in January 2015.

Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers within the Arab World (Int’l Operations)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 1,312.4 2,710 906,056 MS 972.5 3,042 636,996 SV 921.3 2,907 596,011 QR 871.3 4,718 933,275 FZ 737.4 3,628 685,692 EY 472.2 2,166 344,552 G9 421.0 2,052 332,424 RJ 304.9 1,718 230,978 GF 281.4 2,872 409,478 XY 270.2 1,210 217,800

Grand Total 8,541.1 37,297 6,914,821 * Includes scheduled capacity and not actual flown capacity Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer

flydubai takes delivery of its 44th aircraft: flydubai recently took delivery of its 44th Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft. flydubai’s fleet is with an average age of of 3.1 years. This first delivery in 2015 will see flydubai realize its original busi-ness plan as it will receive its 50th aircraft later in 2015.

Air Arabia adds Qatar to its destinations originating from Ras Al Khaimah: Air Arabia announced the addition of Doha to the list of destinations it serves directly from its recently opened Ras Al Khaimah hub, its second hub in UAE. As at 22 February 2015, the carrier started flying four weekly flights to Qatar, bringing the total number of destinations operated from the Ras Al Khaimah International Airport to nine.

Qatar Airways’ B787 Dreamliner debuts in Tunisia: Qatar Airways has ex-tended its Boeing 787 Dreamliner route network to Tunisia with the launch of services to capital city Tunis from 17 February 2015.The introduction of the Dreamliner on the daily flights between Doha and Tunis brings an additional capacity of more than 92% compared to the A320 which was being operated on the route. Qatar Airways’ daily seat capacity to Tunisia has grown from 132 seats on the A320 to 254 seats on the 787 Dream-liner aircraft.Qatar Airways is the first airline to commence with a scheduled 787 Dream-liner service to Tunisia.Qatar Airways has 254 custom-made seats across its 787 Business and Econo-my Class cabins. Business Class is configured in a 1–2–1 layout with 22 seats, while Economy has a 232 seating capacity in a 3–3–3 layout. All seats in Busi-ness Class are reclinable with fully-flat beds.

Saudia launches direct flights between Jeddah and Al-Ula: Saudia started operating direct flights between Jeddah and Al-Ula on 26 February 2015 in its strategic framework to meet the demand of the increasing passenger traffic between the various Saudi cities, in addition to support and bolster domestic tourism. The new service is being operated on biweekly basis.

Saudia launches direct flights between Tabuk and Cairo: Saudia announced its plans to start operating direct flights between Tabuk and Cairo starting from 30 March 2015.Flights between Tabuk and Cairo will be operated three times a week.It is noteworthy to mention that passenger traffic between the KSA and Egypt witnessed a record growth in 2014, reaching 1,805,491 passengers in both di-rections who were transported on board 9,956 scheduled and non-scheduled flights.

FLEETQuarterly Development of Arab Airlines’ Fleet

Apr 14(1) over Jan 14 Jul 14(2) over Apr 14 Oct 14(3) over Jul 14 Jan 15(4) over Oct 14Added

A/CRemoved

A/CAdded

A/CRemoved

A/CAdded

A/CRemoved

A/CAdded

A/CRemoved

A/C5 A320 2 A300 12 A320 6 A320 9 A320 1 A300 7 A320 3 A3204 A330 5 A320 4 A321 1 A321 1 A321 2 A319 1 A321 2 A3301 A380 6 A321 2 A330 8 A330 8 A330 11 A320 5 A330 7 A340

1 ATR-72 2 A330 1 A340 9 A340 9 A340 2 A321 1 A340 1 ATR 421 B727 4 ATR-72 3 A380 1 A310 5 A380 6 A330 7 A380 5 B737

36 B737 2 B737 5 ATR 72 7 B737 7 B737 1 A340 14 B737 2 B7776 B777 1 B747 6 B737 1 B747 12 B777 1 B727 7 B777 3 CRJ9001 B787 1 B777 5 B777 3 B777 3 B787 1 B737 7 B787

2 E190 3 B787 4 E190 1 E190 3 CRJ900 3 E1901 MD-90 1 C-130 1 DHC8

1 DHC6 2 IL-764 DHC8 1 E195

4 MD-11F(1) flydubai fleet added(2) 26 new aircraft have entered into service(3) Air Go Egypt fleet added; 18 new aircraft have entered into service(4) 41 new aircraft have entered into service



Etihad Airways wins 2015 Airline of the Year award for cabin technology in-novations: Etihad Airways has been presented with the 2015 Airline of the Year award by leading IFEC and cabin technology magazine Inflight, published by HMG Aerospace. The Inflight awards ceremony took place at the Aircraft Interiors Middle East expo held in Dubai in February.The awards are judged by an independent panel of industry experts against a set criteria. Etihad Airways won the award based on the high levels of service, cabin technology and innovation provided to its guests on all its flights.

Etihad Airways recognized for CSR approach at UAE sustainability awards: Etihad Airways was successful at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group’s first awards ceremony where the airline received two awards for “Best Sustainabil-ity Communication Program” and “Sustainability Manager of the Year”.In the first category for Best Sustainability Communication Program, the airline was successful for its “BIOjet: Flight Path to Sustainability” program while Mrs. Linden Coppell, Head of Sustainability at Etihad Airways, won the “Sustainabil-ity Manager of the Year” award.

flydubai wins the award for “Best airline IFEC provider for the Middle East” at the Inflight workshop and regional awards: The UK’s HMG Aerospace an-nounced that flydubai has won for the second year in a row the “Best airline IFEC provider for the Middle East” at the third Inflight Magazine Awards, which took place at the Inflight workshop and conference, during the Aircraft Interi-ors Middle East show in Dubai on 2 February 2015.

EgyptAir goes green with IATA award: EgyptAir has been awarded the IATA Fast Travel “Green” status which was instituted by the airline association to facilitate travel procedures and save time and effort of customers.Mr. Adel Helal, EgyptAir’s stations General Manager said the company got its “green” status as 20% of its passengers used self-services, the main condition for getting this status. The airline covered four of the six areas of the project. Source: Arabian Aerospace

Oman Air named Best Airline at Chittagong: Officials in Bangladesh have named Oman Air as the Best Airline Operating to and from Chittagong. The prestigious award was made on the United Nations International Migration Day, by the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training Center, part of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment.

TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCEEtihad Airways sees surge in fleet-wide inflight connectivity usage: Etihad Airways, which in March becomes one of the few airlines in the world to of-fer fleet-wide inflight connectivity services, has witnessed a dramatic surge in Internet and mobile phone usage in 2014. Reflecting the broader trend for people to use their personal devices for work and entertainment when travelling, the growth was largely driven by people logging onto Etihad Airways’ Wi-Fi network, with usage rising by 80% in 2014. Increased demand for onboard mobile services also contributed to the surge in usage, with 2.6 million devices connecting to the airline’s onboard mobile network in 2014. Inflight texts and mobile phone calls increased by 62% and 61% respectively, compared to the same period in 2013.

Gulf Air signs agreement with Intel Security to enhance IT security solutions: Gulf Air announced an agreement with Intel Security™ to provide security so-lutions including system security, network security and security management solutions to Gulf Air*.Gulf Air is committed to protecting its IT systems, and its ongoing commit-ment to securing its critical IT systems both on the ground and onboard its fleet is reflected in a continuous review and assessment of its cyber security measures. By implementing McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to protect the most valuable business data, Gulf Air’s Information Security team can help avert potential risks related to data loss. Implementation of McAfee DLP is de-signed around the “Gulf Air – Data Loss Presentation Model”.The agreement will address Gulf Air’s Information Security requirements on multiple levels. It will include Intel Security’s professional services which will assist Gulf Air in improving their understanding of security risks, and optimiz-ing its Information Technology security. Intel Security’s Complete Data Protec-tion suite includes Encryption to help Gulf Air safeguard data in transit and on rest, in addition to Email Security Solution which will help protect Gulf Air’s critical email services.* No computer system can be absolutely secure.

Oman Air wins four awards at OAMC 2nd Annual Awards Ceremony: Oman Air has scooped four awards at the Oman Airports Management Company Second Annual Awards ceremony, held at the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa in Muscat on 22 February 2015.Oman Air was recognized as one of the top five airlines by number of passen-gers carried at Muscat International Airport. It also received an award as one of the top three airlines at Salalah International Airport, as well as receiving accolades in the Non-Aeronautical and Stakeholder of the Year 2014 catego-ries.Oman Air has also been recognized for its service quality and punctuality at airports around the world.

LAURELSEtihad Airways named “Airline of the Year” at Aviation 100 Awards: Etihad Airways has clinched top honours at the 2015 Aviation 100 Awards, organized by Airline Economics magazine. The awards are voted for by the industry and recognize outstanding achievement in the aerospace sector, with Etihad Air-ways claiming the coveted “Airline of the Year” title.



Emirates Group Security signs MoU with Arab Air Carriers Organization to extend University Diploma Programmes: The Centre of Aviation & Security Studies (CASS), the academic arm of Emirates Group Security and the Arab Air Carriers Organization Regional Training Centre (AACO RTC), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to extend two University Diploma pro-grammes to the members of the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO).The University Diploma in Aviation Security Management and the University Diploma in Ground Handling are being inducted as part of AACO RTC’s training curriculum with its offices in Jordan and Egypt. These two courses are jointly developed by Edith Cowan University of Western Australia and Emirates Group Security.“The two University Diploma Programmes are excellent examples of high-quality management training which have been tailor-made for professionals working in the aviation industry. Designed specifically to improve management practices in aviation security and ground handling, both programmes tap on the practical experience of Emirates’ CASS, the regional expertise of AACO, and the academic excellence of Edith Cowan University of Western Australia. We believe these courses add to the educational and professional development opportunities available to those working in aviation, and ultimately help sup-port the growth of the aviation industry in the MENA region,” said Dr. Abdulla Al Hashimi, Divisional Senior Vice President of the Emirates Group Security.The courses, administered by CASS and academic staff from Edith Cowan Uni-versity, consist of an 18-month programme which involves self-study, tutorials and examinations.

TRAINING

Gulf Air signs an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft to boost ‘Smart’ busi-ness: Gulf Air announced on 23 February 2015 the renewal of its Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft. As technology is changing fast, creating opportu-nities and challenges to businesses, it is vital to empower the business with Microsoft latest products in order to be better equipped to respond to market changes. The agreement, which secures better business visibility and higher internal engagement, was signed by Gulf Air A/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Maher Salman Al Musallam, Gulf Air’s Director of Information Technology, Dr. Jassim Haji and Microsoft’s General Manager in Bahrain and Oman Mr. Sherif Tawfik, in a meeting held at the airline’s headquarters and attended by senior management from both organizations.Under the Enterprise Agreement, Gulf Air will benefit from a range of cloud-based solutions and services that will help them improve their operational productivity and workforce efficiency in a cost-effective and timely manner. Gulf Air will also gain access to extensive technical and operational support from a team of Microsoft’s experts.

“We are delighted with this strategic initiative to broaden the platform of ter-tiary education in aviation security and ground handling education which will certainly complement the existing vocational and industry-specific training pro-grammes. Students who sign up for these diploma courses will be embarking not only on a learning journey from the aspects of the civil aviation profession but also the road towards attaining academic qualifications. This will augur well for those who wish to pursue further academic programmes and play a strong role in professionalising the industry,” said Edith Cowan University’s Professor Nara Srinivasan, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Emirates Engagement) and Professor of Security and Risk.“Aviation security has become a foremost priority, equal in its importance to safety. The fundamental premise upon which airlines, airports and the whole civil aviation industry is based, depends upon providing safe and secure travel to the public. It is an honour and a privilege to collaborate with Emirates, one of the best airlines in the world and one of the most forward-looking compa-nies in the field of aviation,” said Mr. Abdul Wahab Teffaha, Secretary General of AACO.Mr. Teffaha added: “Emirates is known to use the latest technologies and tech-niques in all operational domains including aviation security. Combining Emir-ates’ experience with the educational expertise of Edith Cowan University, and the regional expertise of the AACO RTC, we believe these customised courses will deliver high-quality training to industry professionals. I am confident that the MoU that we signed with the Centre of Aviation & Security Studies (CAAS) of Emirates Group Security paves the way to future collaborative efforts aimed at furthering the industry’s excellent record in security.”

NAS Holding announces the launch of the Aircraft Engineers Maintenance Programme (AEMP): NAS Holding announced the launch of new training op-portunities ending with employment as part of the Aircraft Maintenance Engi-neers Programme, which is a NAS Holding Human Resources Programme.The AEMP is the latest in a series of NAS Holding training programmes for Saudi youth, Future Pilots, which targets graduating 150 First Officers and from which 70 trainees have graduated to date; the Flight Dispatchers Programme targeting 50 graduates out of which 10 trainees have graduated to date; and the Cabin Crew Programme which is currently in progress and has a target graduating more than 150 cabin crew.



28,037,867 passengers in 2014, a 5.6% increase over 2013 figures.It is noteworthy to mention that the number of operating air carriers at the airport greatly increased in 2014 to reach 86 air carriers, compared to 60 in 2013; nevertheless, during Hajj and Umrah seasons of 2014, the number of air carriers serving the airport reached 98 (scheduled and non-scheduled flights).

Air passenger numbers at Muscat and Salalah airports grow in 2014: Air pas-senger numbers at Muscat and Salalah airports have grown in 2014 compared to 2013, with Salalah Airport recording a 13% increase in total passenger num-bers. Muscat International Airport, meanwhile, recorded almost 5% increase in passenger numbers during the period, including transit travelers.Muscat International Airport received more than 8.7 million passengers in2014 compared to 8.3 million in 2013; while 841,970 passengers were wel-comed at Salalah airport in 2014 up from 745,372 in 2013.Figures indicate that international passengers at Muscat International Airport rose by 4.6% to 7.87 million whereas the growth in domestic passengers was higher at 7.4% translating into 837,661 passengers. The growth figures for Salalah airport were 41.9% in terms of international passengers, and 4.8% for domestic passengers, or 233,403 and 608,567 passengers respectively.Source: Times of Oman

Hamad International Airport announces 13% passenger growth in 2014: Ha-mad International Airport (HIA) announced a 13% passenger growth in 2014 in comparison to 2013. This means over three million more passengers travelled using Doha’s airport in 2014 compared to 2013.HIA saw a total of 26,356,392 travelers departing, arriving and transiting through its passenger terminal complex in 2014. Of these, 10.6 million passen-gers travelled through Doha International Airport, Doha’s former commercial airport, and 15.7 million passengers travelled through Hamad International Airport, which started its commercial operations on 27 of May 2014.Source: Hamad International Airport

Abu Dhabi International Airport sees 20.7% increase in traffic for January 2015: Abu Dhabi Airports announced that passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi In-ternational Airport increased by 20.7% in January 2015. A total of 1,887,631 passengers passed through Abu Dhabi International Airport during the month, compared with 1,564,266 in January 2014.There were 14,128 aircraft movements in January 2015, which was an 18% increase over January 2014’s figure of 11,972. Cargo activity comprised 64,479 tons handled at the airport’s three terminals in January 2015, an 11% increase when compared to January 2014.In January 2015, the top five routes from Abu Dhabi International Airport were Bangkok, London, Doha, Manila and Jeddah. The top five routes accounted for 16% of all traffic in January.Source: Abu Dhabi Airports

Top 20 Airports by International Seats Offered on Operations To, From, and Within the Arab World - January 2015

Top 20 Airports by Int’l Seats Offered on Operations To, From, and Within the Arab world

Airport Number of Seats Airport Number of SeatsDXB 9,074,553 IST 847,407 DOH 3,454,662 CMN 803,275 AUH 2,338,520 AMM 786,917 JED 2,082,686 LHR 781,202 CAI 1,677,485 BEY 728,670 KWI 1,337,279 CDG 629,133 RUH 1,128,895 BOM 565,311 BAH 1,099,821 DMM 563,798 MCT 1,066,277 ALG 561,361 SHJ 854,443 TUN 513,782

ARAB AIRPORTS

Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer

King Fahd International Airport transports 8.5 million passengers in 2014: The number of passengers at King Fahd International Airport reached 8.5 mil-lion passengers in 2014, an increase of 12% compared to 2013. Moreover, aircraft movements at the airport rose by 8.8% in 2014 compared to 2013. At the freight level, the airport handled more than 120 thousand tons.These figures were highlighted in the airport’s annual figures for 2014. Figures also indicated that there 36 airlines operating to and from the airport, serving 65 domestic and international destinations.

King Abdulaziz International Airport welcomes 28 million passengers in 2014: King Abdulaziz International Airport reached a record number by welcoming

Gulf Air and Lufthansa extend cooperation in landing gear: Gulf Air and Luf-thansa Technik have early extended their existing cooperation in landing gear overhaul for the airline’s Airbus A320, A321 and A330 fleet.The new contract, which commenced in February 2015, will end in December 2020. The contract comprises landing gear overhaul and exchange for com-plete shipsets. The overhaul work will be executed at the Lufthansa Technik landing gear shop in Hamburg/Germany. Lufthansa Technik first entered into a landing gear agreement with Gulf Air in 2011 and has performed ten overhaul events in total, to date.Source: Arabian Aerospace

MAINTENANCE, REPAIR & OVERHAUL



Al Maktoum International Airport registers growth in freight volumes and passenger traffic in 2014: Freight volumes and passenger traffic at Al Mak-toum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) reached record levels in 2014 according to the fourth quarter and year-end traffic report released by operator Dubai Airports.DWC welcomed 845,046 passengers in its first full year of passenger opera-tions, boosted mainly by the arrival of a number of passenger carriers during the runway refurbishment programme at Dubai International from 1 May to 20 July. The annual figures were also increased by traffic during the fourth quarter, during which DWC handled 110,920 passengers.Freight volumes at DWC surged 262.5% to 758,371 tons in 2014 compared to 209,209 tons in 2013, due to the completion of the shift of all freighter op-erators from DXB to DWC by May 2014. The airport registered growth in the fourth quarter with cargo volumes reaching 238,520 tons, up 278.4% com-pared to 63,028 tons recorded during the same period in 2013.The increased activity in passenger and freight operations at DWC propelled the number of annual aircraft movements by 91.6% to 47,655 compared to 24,871 during 2013. The airport recorded 11,687 aircraft movements during the fourth quarter, up 47% compared to 7,948 during the corresponding pe-riod in 2013.Source: Dubai Airports

Dubai International Airport welcomes 6.8 million passengers in January 2015: Dubai International Airport welcomed more than 6.8 million passengers in January. According to the traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports on 2 March 2015, passenger traffic rose 7.7% to 6,895,668 in January 2015, up from 6,400,706 in the same month in 2014.In 2014, the airport welcomed 70.4 million passengers, and is expected to rise to 79 million in 2015.Regionally, Eastern Europe remained the fastest-expanding market in terms of percentage growth* (+71.9%), followed by North America (+16.9%), the Indian subcontinent (+12.2%) and Asia (10.5%). Russia & CIS recorded fewer visitors with traffic dropping -22.7% due to the political and economic instabil-ity in the region, while traffic on Australasian routes also registered a marginal dip of -1.6%. Routes to the Indian subcontinent (+171,552 passengers), AGCC (+115,317 passengers), and Western Europe (+105,409) topped in terms of growth in passenger numbers.Aircraft movements totaled 34,643 in January 2015, up 6.2% compared to the 32,625 movements recorded in January 2014.Freight volumes at Dubai International continued the downward trend in Janu-ary, contracting 5.5% to 186,230 tons, from 197,021 recorded in January 2014. The contraction is the result of a total of shift of cargo operations to Al Mak-toum International at Dubai World Central since May 2014.Source: Dubai Airports

UAE GCAA launches major en route and flow management initiative with Airbus ProSky: The aviation industry is a key enabler of the UAE economy. With growth of air traffic expected to increase from 2,200 flight movements a day in 2014 to 5,100 flight movements daily in 2030, optimizing airspace is critical to handling increasing capacity demands, efficiency and overall growth. Recognizing such importance, the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has strategically invested in understanding its airspace challenges and implement-ing the necessary changes.The agreement also includes a Collaborative Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) study and operational trial. The output shall result in a concept of operations specific to the UAE environment.

AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

In the 2012-2103 airspace study, Airbus ProSky identified Air Traffic Manage-ment (ATM), airspace and Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) challenges resulting in 53 recommendations for improvement.A comprehensive airspace design is a key element ensuring the airspace will be optimally used to support growing aviation needs and activity levels. It also leverages capabilities as they are deployed as part of ICAO Block Upgrades and will accommodate the transition to a full Performance Based Navigation (PBN) airspace environment.The UAE FIR is predominantly a complex En Route environment with the ma-jority of traffic spending around 85% of the flight distance flown in a climb or descent phase. The conceptual designs that will be created by Airbus ProSky will interface the appropriate connectivity to Control Areas CTA’s, which is key to ensuring integration into the overall UAE network route structure and inter-national interfaces.Source: Airbus ProSky

GLOBALARABAVIATION

Passenger numbers to and from the Arab world market reported a 6.7% in-crease between November 14 & January 15* compared to the same period in previous year.

Global Arab Aviation


PASSENGER TRAFFICPassenger numbers on routes to and from the Arab world are estimated to have grown by 3.8% in January 2015 compared to January 2014, after a growth of 9.1% in December 2014 over December 2013.

SPREADING OUT

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 31

ROUTES

Traffic to and from the Arab world Jan 15* over Jan 14With the Americas 0%With Europe 1.7%With Mid Asia 6.7%With Far East and Australasia 1.6%With Sub Saharan Africa 7.5%


Source: AACO, IATA *EstimatedPassenger numbers to and from the Arab world market reported an 8.5% growth between October 14 & December 14 compared to the same period in previous year.


Airline From To Date Weekly Freq. Aircraft type

AT Casablanca New York 22 Feb. 15 unchanged B787

EK Dubai Nairobi 1 May. 15 unchanged A330 to B777-300ER

Bali 3 Jun. 15 7x B777-300EREY Abu Dhabi Kolkata 15 Feb. 15 7x A320

FZ Dubai

Shiraz 8 Mar. 15

N/A B737-800Isfahan 11 Mar. 15Ahwaz 14 Mar. 15

Hamadan 16 Mar. 15TabrizG9 Ras Al

Khaimah Kathmandu 22 Feb. 15 2x A320-200

IAWSulaymaniyah

Manchester 15 Mar. 15 N/A B737-800 Erbil

QR Doha

Singapore 1 Jun. 15 14x to 21x A350 XWB Cape Town 1 Oct. 15 5x to 7x B787

Durban via Johannes-burg 17 Dec. 15 4x B787

WY Muscat Singapore 29 Mar. 15 7x A330

Goa 29 Mar. 15 4x B737Dhaka Aug. 15 4x A330

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

Monthly Passenger Numbers' Change To and From the Arab WorldFeb14 to Jan15* compared to same month in previous year


Effect of Ramadan

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

With theAmericas With Europe

With Mid AsiaWith

AustralAsia With Sub-Saharan Africa

Passenger Numbers' Change To and From the Arab WorldOct14-Dec14 & Nov14-Jan15* compared to same period in previous year

Oct14-Dec14

Nov14-Jan15*



Air Arabia adds Nepal to Ras Al Khaimah destination list: Air Arabia has an-nounced Kathmandu as the latest destination to be served from the recently launched Ras Al Khaimah hub. On 22 February 2015, the carrier started flying two weekly flights to Kathmandu, the 10th destination which travelers can now access from the Northern Emirates.Air Arabia currently serves Kathmandu with triple daily flights from its main hub at Sharjah International Airport.

Iraqi Airways launches two new routes linking Iraq with Manchester Airport: Iraqi Airways announced the addition of two new services linking Iraq with Manchester.Starting from 15 March 2015, the airline will begin services from Sulaymani-yah and Erbil to Manchester. Both routes will be operated by a Boeing 737-800 with capacity for 162 passengers.Source: Arabian Aerospace

Qatar Airways to add a new frequency to Singapore: Qatar Airways is to launch an additional daily flight to Singapore from 1 June 2015.The airline will be operating the new additional flight and the existing two daily flights to Singapore with its third, fourth and fifth A350 XWB aircraft, commencing service in June, July and August 2015. With this, Qatar Airways will become the first airline to operate the A350 XWB to Singapore and the Asia Pacific.The Business Class cabin of the A350 XWB has 36 seats in a 1-2-1 configura-tion. The Economy Class features 247 seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.

Qatar Airways announces major expansion in South Africa with launch of flights to Durban and frequency increases to Johannesburg and Cape Town: Qatar Airways has announced a major expansion in South Africa with the launch of a new destination Durban while simultaneously increasing its weekly frequencies to Johannesburg. The airline will also increase its weekly frequen-cy to Cape Town going up from five flights a week to a daily service.Effective from 17 December 2015, the airline will launch four new weekly flights to Durban via Johannesburg bringing the total frequency to Johannes-burg up from 10 weekly flights to a double-daily service. From 1 October 2015 Qatar Airways will be operating daily flights to Cape Town, an increase from five weekly flights.Durban will be Qatar Airways’ third route to South Africa following Johannes-burg and Cape Town, both of which started in January 2005. All three routes will be operated with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner which offers passengers 254 seats across its Business and Economy Class, with its seats in Business Class reclining to 180-degree fully flat beds.

Oman Air to launch services to Goa, Singapore and Dhaka: Oman Air will launch services to three destinations this spring. Oman Air will fly from Muscat to Singapore and Goa from 29 March and to Dhaka as from August 2015.

Royal Air Maroc enhances its flights between Casablanca and New York by launching the B787 Dreamliner service: Royal Air Maroc’s B787 Dreamliner aircraft landed in New York on 22 February 2015, in its first long-haul flight since it first received the aircraft in January 2015. With this flight, Royal Air Maroc has enhanced its operations between Casablanca and New York by of-fering this service onboard the B787 Dreamliner aircraft.The B787 aircraft offers 274 seats, of which 18 seats of them are dedicated to the Business Class. Moreover, the new service will reduce the flight time from Casablanca to New York by 25 minutes.It is noteworthy to mention that Royal Air Maroc will receive its second B787 aircraft in April 2015, while the other 3 B787s will be received in March 2016, April 2016 and March 2017 respectively.

Emirates increases capacity on its double daily Nairobi service: Emirates will connect more people with Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, when it switches from the current Airbus A330-200 aircraft used on one of the two daily services to a larger Boeing 777-300 ER from 1 May. The introduction of a Boeing 777-300ER will boost capacity on the route by 1,638 seats a week, and make Nairobi an all-Boeing 777 operation for Emirates.The Emirates Boeing 777-300ER will offer 354 seats in a three-class configura-tion, with eight luxurious private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Busi-ness Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class.The larger aircraft also provides a total of 77 tons of additional cargo capacity per week on the route.

Emirates to commence daily service to Bali: Emirates announced that it will launch a new daily service to the island of Bali in Indonesia, from 3 June 2015.Bali will be Emirates’ 148th global destination, adding to the airline’s route network in the Asia Pacific region which currently spans 23 destinations in 13 countries. The non-stop service between Dubai and Bali will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Etihad Airways enters East India with launch of daily Kolkata flights: Etihad Airways launched on 15 February its daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Kol-kata (Calcutta), the airline’s 11th destination in India on its own, and its 15th destination in combination with network partner Jet Airways.Etihad Airways operates a two cabin A320 aircraft between Abu Dhabi and Kol-kata which is configured to carry 136 passengers, with 16 in Business Class and 120 in Economy Class.

flydubai adds five new cities to its Iranian network: flydubai announced the launch of flights to Ahwaz, Hamadan, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz in Iran. The an-nouncement will see flydubai’s Iranian network grow to seven points, adding to the launch of flights to Tehran and Mashhad in 2014.Flights to Shiraz, Isfahan and Ahwaz will commence on 8, 11 and 14 of March respectively. Hamadan and Tabriz will join the flydubai network on 16 March.flydubai’s Business Class will be available to the five new destinations.



Oman Air’s new Airbus A330 service between Muscat to Singapore will oper-ate daily. Whereas, Oman Air’s new service, operated using Boeing 737 air-craft, will offer four flights per week between Muscat International Airport and Goa International Airport. Moreover, Oman Air’s new service, operated using its A330 aircraft, will offer four flights per week between Muscat International Airport and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.

CAPACITY AND DEMANDPassenger Air Services to & from the Arab World - Jan 2015 - SRS AnalyzerAACO members increased the number of seats offered to and from theArab world by 19.8%, while other airlines decreased the number by (3%) which resulted in a growth of 11.6% in the total number of offered seats to and from the Arab world.

Percentage of the Total Available Seats To and From the Arab WorldWith Europe 28.6%With Mid Asia 18.7%With Australasia 10.4%With the Americas 3%With Sub Saharan Africa 4.6%

Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer

Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers (Arab World & Europe)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 8,075.9 3,916 1,629,589 QR 2,936.3 2,620 651,722 EY 1,985.6 1,652 399,464 TK 1,145.6 2,778 553,374 BA 818.7 771 177,188 SV 714.9 896 203,786 AT 654.9 2,354 346,858 LH 610.0 739 158,173 MS 564.7 1,214 210,978 AF 468.7 1,147 195,195

Grand Total 26,668.6 38,274 8,036,515 * Includes scheduled capacity and not actual flown capacity Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer

Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers (Arab World & Australasia)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 7,687.3 2,665 1,107,626 QR 3,517.8 1,774 523,602 EY 2,588.8 1,235 368,190 SV 1,186.1 432 156,016 QF 660.5 124 55,800 GA 482.2 204 61,230 5J 452.8 142 61,912 CX 445.1 230 71,530 PR 338.1 152 45,904 MS 316.6 123 41,613

Grand Total 20,271.4 8,626 2,914,946

Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers (Arab World & Mid Asia)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 2,580.5 3,090 1,109,815 SV 1,224.5 1,376 403,901 QR 1,189.6 2,144 437,490 9W 1,007.8 2,348 393,470 G9 890.1 2,167 351,054 EY 734.2 1,779 297,577 FZ 722.9 1,595 301,455 AI 707.8 1,249 249,781 IX 618.4 1,294 232,920 PK 561.8 1,094 222,010

Grand Total 13,305.5 25,510 5,253,862

* Includes scheduled capacity and not actual flown capacity Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer




Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers (Arab World & Sub Saharan Africa)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 2,856.7 1,472 524,828 QR 507.7 629 112,503 AT 409.5 876 136,180 MS 290.1 455 76,849 ET 254.2 731 120,699 EY 187.2 239 45,103 FZ 111.4 175 33,075 SV 107.2 130 35,268 9W 87.8 62 14,446 KQ 72.6 122 22,820

Grand Total 5,396.0 5,834 1,288,785

Capacity* of Top 10 Carriers (Arab World & the Americas)Airline ASKs (Million) Departures Seats

EK 3,940.8 770 327,074 QR 1,763.2 504 151,816 EY 1,312.3 364 110,924 SV 645.5 182 58,698 9W 566.6 124 46,872 UA 292.6 97 26,384 RJ 251.6 98 26,460 MS 228.8 74 25,114 DL 194.1 59 15,871 AT 178.9 126 29,414

Grand Total 9,525.3 2,470 837,685 * Includes scheduled capacity and not actual flown capacity Source: AACO, SRS Analyzer


TOURISMMiddle East & North Africa: Tourism adapts to challenges and gains new momentum: The tourism sector in the Middle East and North Africa has been largely able to adapt and recover in recent times and even bounce back over 2014. Against this backdrop, several tourism ministers of the region, Span-ish authorities and private sector representatives focused on future tourism prospects at the third Ministerial Round Table on Tourism Development in the MENA Region, during the Madrid International Tourism Fair (29 January, FITUR Madrid).According to the most recent UNWTO data, after three successive years of decline, international tourist arrivals to the Middle East grew by 4% and by 1% to North Africa in 2014. Mainly depending on peace and stability, future tour-ism prospects for the Middle East are positive (between 2% and 5% in 2015). According to UNWTO forecasts, by 2030 the MENA region could receive 195 million tourist arrivals (almost triple the present volume of 70 million tourists) benefiting both established and emerging destinations.Tourism potential and challengesExperts trust in a strong pent up demand for tourism to the region from both intra and inter-regional generating markets, which will continue to be released as uncertainty fades away and consumer confidence returns.Participating Tourism Ministers pointed precisely to the critical contribution of political stability for tourism to prosper and contribute to socio-economic progress, including the need for political will to support tourism (Morocco), consolidation of democracy (Tunisia), an active civil society (Lebanon), as well as the benefits of trans-border cooperation in the MENA region (Jordan and Oman).A more stable political framework is conducive to successfully addressing chal-lenges which include the removal of barriers to growth, strengthening the sector’s resilience, adapting to changing consumer patterns and technological changes, as well as developing new business models and maximizing tourism’s social and economic benefits, while minimizing possible negative impacts.Source: UNWTO



Governments recognize benefits of visa facilitation: Visa facilitation has ex-perienced strong progress in recent years, particularly through the implemen-tation of visa on arrival policies according to UNWTO’s latest Visa Openness Report. This largely reflects an increased awareness among policymakers of the positive impacts of visa facilitation on tourism and economic growth. According to the Report, 62% of the world’s population was required a tradi-tional visa prior to departure in 2014, down from 77% in 2008. In 2014 too, 19% of the world’s population was able to enter a destination without a visa, while 16% could receive a visa on arrival, as compared to 17% and 6% in 2008.The Report also shows that the most prevalent facilitation measure imple-mented has been “visa on arrival”. Over half of all improvements made in the last four years were from “visa required” to “visa on arrival”.Countries in the Americas and in Asia and the Pacific have been at the fore-front of visa facilitation, while Europe and Middle East have more restrictive visa policies. Overall, emerging economies tend to be more open than ad-vanced ones, with South-East Asia, East Africa, the Caribbean and Oceania among the most open subregions.Research by UNWTO and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) shows that the G20 economies could boost their international tourist numbers by an additional 122 million, generate an extra USD 206 billion in tourism exports and create over five million additional jobs by improving visa processes and entry formalities. The same research carried out for the APEC and the ASEAN countries indicates that visa facilitation could generate important gains for both groups, including the creation of 2.6 million jobs in APEC and 650.000 jobs in ASEAN.Source: UNWTO

COLLABORATIONRoyal Air Maroc and JetBlue sign a codeshare agreement: Royal Air Maroc has signed a codeshare agreement with JetBlue in Marrakech on 27 February 2015. Royal Air Maroc will provide its passengers with new destinations in the US by codesharing on JetBlue flights to 22 destinations including Washington, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Seattle, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francis-co, Denver and other destinations originating from Casablanca and passing via New York. Moreover, JetBlue will offer its passengers a list of new destinations in Morocco and West Africa by codesharing on Royal Air Maroc flights to Mar-rakech and 15 other destinations in Morocco, in addition to 24 destinations in West Africa.

Qatar Airways deepens its codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways: Qatar Airways has strengthened its relationship with Bangkok Airways with the addition of further code-share routes.The expansion of this agreement with Bangkok Airways will enhance Qatar Airways’ passengers’ options as it adds 10 additional sectors from Bangkok

to Chiang Rai, Udon Thani, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Nay Pyi Taw and Siem Reap, together with Koh Samui to Singapore, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur and Phuket to Chiang Mai.This will both strengthen and complement Qatar Airways’ current code-shares from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Lampang, Trat, Sukhothai, Samui, Mandalay, Yangon and Phnom Penh.Those passengers travelling onto code-share destinations from Bangkok will also benefit from a travel experience on board Qatar Airways’ A380 aircraft, which commenced service to the city in December 2014. Complementing the airline’s four-times daily service to Bangkok, this aircraft allows passengers the opportunity to experience the A380 of Qatar Airways.Meanwhile, those travelling onwards from Phuket, will also benefit from the airline’s direct daily scheduled service from Doha, which commenced in 2014. The route was previously served from Doha via Kuala Lumpur.

Air Seychelles increases travel options to and from Mumbai following code-share expansion with Etihad Airways: Air Seychelles announced an expansion of its codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways for travel to Mumbai from 1 February 2015. Under this agreement, Air Seychelles puts its HM flight code on 21 weekly Etihad Airways flights between Mumbai and Abu Dhabi that connect onto its services between Abu Dhabi and Seychelles.These codeshare flights complement Air Seychelles’ existing direct flights be-tween Mumbai and Seychelles, which were launched in December 2014.Source: Air Seychelles

Air Seychelles boosts presence in Middle East with codeshare flights to Am-man: Air Seychelles has expanded its reach in the Middle East by adding Am-man to its codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways.Effective 5 February, Air Seychelles places its HM code on 14 weekly Etihad Airways’ flights between Abu Dhabi and Amman.This new route is the seventh codeshare point for Air Seychelles in the region, with the carrier already placing its flight code on Etihad Airways’ services to Abu Dhabi; Jeddah and Riyadh; Muscat; Bahrain and Kuwait.Source: Air Seychelles



US environmental groups and aviation sector lobby EPA and FAA over air-craft emissions endangerment: With the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to issue in May a proposed determination of whether carbon pollu-tion from aircraft endangers public health or welfare, representatives from the US aviation sector and environmental groups have spelt out their different po-sitions in open letters to the agency and the FAA. The EPA’s decision to address aviation emissions came in September 2014 after environmental organisations waged a four-year legal battle to force the agency to act. Six groups are now urging the Administration to move quickly to set emission standards and call on agency officials to simultaneously start analysing how to make airplanes less polluting, otherwise regulations could be delayed for years, they claim. US industry associations say in their joint letter that aviation requires a global rather than national approach to the standards issue.The six environmental groups – the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, the National Resources Defense Council, the Environmen-tal Defense Fund and the Sierra Club – are demanding quick action on intro-ducing strong standards that reduce aircraft emissions. They urge the EPA to act under the Clean Air Act “with the goal of proposing final standards no later than the end of 2015.”In their letter to the EPA and FAA, five industry associations representing air-lines, aircraft manufacturers and business aviation maintain that as aviation is global in nature, with aircraft operators operating internationally and manu-facturers selling their aircraft in international markets, emission standards

should be agreed at an international level through ICAO.The UN agency, through its Committee on Aviation Environmental Protec-tion (CAEP), is currently working on a CO2 emissions standard for new aircraft though it is not expected to be approved until 2016.The letter’s signatories say the US aviation sector took the role of controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions “very seriously”, and added: “As a result of our efforts, US airlines have improved their fuel efficiency 120% since 1978 and together with other aircraft operators account for only 2% of the nation’s GHG inventory, while driving 5% of the nation’s GDP.”By contrast, the environmental groups contest in their letter that aircraft are one of the fastest-growing carbon emissions sources and point to a recent report by the International Council on Clean Transportation that found despite the airline industry’s claim that fuel costs already force them to operate as efficiently as possible, there was a 27% gap between the most and least fuel-efficient airlines serving the US domestic market.Source: GreenAir Online

UNFCCC agreement paves the way for some aviation emission reduction projects to be eligible under CDM: Projects that lead to reductions in aviation-related emissions could soon by eligible under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows emission reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits – each equivalent to one ton of CO2 – that can be traded and used by industrialised countries to meet a part of their targets under the Kyoto Protocol. At a meeting in Feb-ruary, the Executive Board that supervises the CDM agreed to develop three methodologies initially that would include projects such as solar power for at-gate aircraft, green taxiing and aircraft engine washing. Under the Protocol, projects to reduce emissions from domestic flights and at airports in devel-oping countries are already eligible to be included in the CDM but emissions resulting from international flights, even if they take off, fly over or land in developing countries, have not so far been eligible. ICAO welcomed the move towards adopting the new methodologies.In order to ensure the environmental integrity of the CDM, methodologies are required to establish a project’s emissions baseline, or expected emissions without the project, and to monitor the actual ongoing emissions once a proj-ect is implemented. The difference between the baseline and the actual emis-sions determines what a project is eligible to earn in the form of credits. Once developed, a new emissions baseline and monitoring methodology could be used by projects in the aviation sector to quantify their emissions reductions and earn saleable credits for those reductions.The CDM has so far led to registration of over 7,800 projects and programmes in 107 developing countries, hundreds of billions of dollars in investment and 1.5 billion fewer tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the prices paid for CERs have plunged following the global economic slowdown and uncer-tainty over the future of the CDM, with the incentive to create new projects, and even continuing existing projects, having almost disappeared, admits the

ENVIRONMENT

CDM pipeline update 1 Mar. 2015Status # of ProjectsAt Validation 1017Request for Registration 25Request for Review 0Correction Requested 0Under Review 0Total in Registration Process 25

CDM pipeline update:

Settlement Price of ECX EUA and CER Futures on 5 March 2015Dec-15 Dec-16 Dec-17 Dec-18

EUAs € 6.80 € 6.89 € 7.03 € 7.19 CERs € 0.40 € 0.39 € 0.39 € 0.37

Source: IntercontinentalExchange

Status # of ProjectsWithdrawn 62Rejected by EB 271Validation Negative by DOE 267

Validation Terminated by DOE 1,961

Registered, no issuance of CERs 4,852

Registered, CER issued 2,746Total Registered 7,598

Source: UNEP RisØ



UNFCCC.In the run-up to the crucial climate summit in Paris later this year, the Board has therefore urged countries to renew their commitment to the CDM and use it to encourage emissions reductions and drive climate finance, technology transfer, capacity building, sustainable development and adaptation.Source: GreenAir Online

REGULATORY TONE

UAE seals Open Skies agreement with Burkina Faso: The United Arab Emir-ates, represented by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), has signed an Open Skies agreement with the Government of Burkina Faso.The agreement was signed by H.E Eng. Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy and Chairman of GCAA and H.E. Daouda Traore, Minister of Infra-structures and Transports of Burkina Faso.The agreement that was signed allows full flexibility on the routes, capacity, number of frequencies and types of aircraft, in any type of service (passenger or cargo). It also includes the exercise of fifth freedom traffic rights. In addi-tion, both Parties agreed to allow unrestricted, non-scheduled/charter opera-tions between the two countries.Source: UAE GCAA

Yemen, Iran sign an MoU on air transport: The Civil Aviation and Meteorology Authority (CAMA) of Yemen and Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) signed in Tehran a memorandum of understanding in the field of air transport.The MoU gives both Yemen Airways and Mahan Air the right to operate 14 flights a week between the two countries in each direction for each company.The MoU was signed by acting head of the CAMA Mohammed Abdulqadir and Deputy Head of the CAO Kharid Kermani.Source: Yemen News Agency (SABA)

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 45



The Italian Republic• Population: 60.78 million• Land area: 301,338 km2

• Number of passengers in 2013: more than 115 million passengers were handled by Italian airports

• Number of commercial airports: more than 32 commercial airports• Major Italian-based airlines: Alidaunia, Alitalia, C.A.I. First, C.A.I. Second,

and Meridiana flyAviation Policy: - ENAC is the primary agency entrusted with the responsibility of regulating

aviation in Italy, as provided by Article 687 of the Italian Navigation Code (INC) and Legislative Decree No. 250/97.

- Italy enjoys an open market in the EEA; and benefits from comprehensive agreements signed between the EU and third countries such as Morocco and Jordan.

AN AVIATION MARKET IN FOCUS: ITALY

Source: AACO, FlightMaps Analytics January 2015

For international passengers and based on O&DSource: AACO, IATAThe Italian aviation market links 217 cities worldwide (click on image for detailed view)

Airline Seat CapacityAlitalia (AZ) 3,434,097Ryanair (FR) 3,281,040easyJet (U2) 1,174,368Vueling Airlines (VY) 575,778Meridiana fly (IG) 517,761Lufthansa (LH) 418,475Wizz Air (W6) 294,120Air France (AF) 254,416British Airways (BA) 231,268Emirates (EK) 208,834

Top 10 airlines operating by seat ca-pacity to, from and within Italy in January 2015The top 10 airlines on the left offered 13.74 million seats (75.61% of the scheduled seat capacity) to, from and within Italy in January 2015.

Top 10 routes by seat capacity to and from Italy in January 2015Around 1.49 million seats were of-fered on the top 10 city pairs to and from Itlay in January 2015, represent-ing a 13.81% of the total capacity offered to and from Italy.

Route Seat Capacity*London - Milan 232,161Milan - Paris 227,461Paris - Rome 206,356London - Rome 175,299Madrid - Rome 147,086Barcelona - Milan 105,816Brussels - Rome 104,799Madrid - Milan 103,292Barcelona - Rome 99,015Paris- Venice 96,250

Source: AACO, FlightMaps Analytics* This includes seat capacity in both directions

Source: AACO, FlightMaps Analytics



The Italian domestic aviation in January 2015

Route Seat Capacity*Milan - Rome 249,537Catania - Rome 181,589Palermo - Rome 141,951Catania - Milan 135,390Milan - Naples 127,768Bari - Milan 103,464Cagliari - Rome 100,269Rome - Turin 87,261Cagliari - Milan 84,512Milan - Palermo 79,438

Source: AACO, FlightMaps Analytics* This includes seat capacity in both directions

The top 10 city pairs on the right accounted for almost 44.57% of the total seat capacity sched-uled within Italy in January 2015.

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 47

IATA figures -- January passenger demand signals solid start to 2015: The In-ternational Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic results for January 2015 showing traffic growth (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) of 4.6% compared to January 2014. This represents a slower start to the year compared to 2014 full-year growth of 5.9%. However, results likely were affected by the timing of the Lunar New Year in Asia, which occurred one month later this year compared to 2014. January capacity rose 5.2% and load factor slipped 0.5 percentage points to 77.7%. While domestic markets drove growth in the latter part of 2014, international traffic was stronger in January.

Jan 2015 vs. Jan 2014 RPK Growth ASK Growth PLFInternational 5.4% 6.0% 78.0Domestic 3.2% 3.9% 77.3Total Market 4.6% 5.2% 77.7

2014 vs. 2013 RPK Growth ASK Growth PLFInternational 6.1% 6.4% 79.2Domestic 5.4% 4.3% 80.6Total Market 5.9% 5.6% 79.7

International passenger marketsJanuary international passenger traffic rose 5.4% compared to the year-ago period. Capacity rose 6.0% and load factor slipped 0.5 percentage points to 78.0%. All regions recorded year-over increases in demand except for Africa.

• European carriers’ international traffic climbed 5.0% in January com-pared to the year-ago period, which was the largest increase among the three biggest regions. Capacity rose 4.6% and load factor rose 0.3 per-centage points to 77.7%. Air travel growth in Europe reflects robust travel on low cost carriers as well as on airlines registered in Turkey which is helping to overcome some of the impact on travel of the ongoing eco-nomic weakness in the region.

• Asia-Pacific carriers recorded an increase of 4.7% compared to January 2014, which is below the 2014 annual trend of 5.8% expansion. In addi-tion, the seasonally-adjusted level of traffic has been broadly flat over the past five months. The timing of the Lunar New Year in mid-February (one month later than it fell in 2014) also impacted the results. Capacity rose 5.8%, pushing down load factor 0.8 percentage points to 77.6%.

• North American airlines saw demand rise 2.7% in January over a year ago. While this was the weakest traffic growth for all regions save Africa, the US economy is a stand-out performer among developed economies. Capacity rose 3.8%, pushing down load factor 0.9 percentage points to 79.5%.



WORLD NEWSUAE ranks number 1 globally in aviation safety standards: The UAE has ac-complished an enormous and unprecedented achievement by ranking highest in the world in compliance with international aviation safety standards after intensive audit through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme. The UAE scored a success rate of 98.86 per cent, which is the highest rate in history given by ICAO. Source: Emirates News Agency (WAM)

EU January traffic: EU airports surpass non-EU for first time since 2009: Euro-pean airport trade body, ACI EUROPE today released its traffic report for Janu-ary 2015, providing the first indication of air traffic performance so far this year. The report is the only air transport report which includes all types of civil avia-tion passenger flights: full service, low cost and charter. It reveals that passen-ger traffic at Europe’s airports grew by an average 4.8%, when compared with January 2014.Reviewing the result in more detail, passenger traffic in the EU grew by a healthy 5.1% while non-EU airports posted a lower rate of passenger traffic growth 3.8% for the first time in nearly 6 years. More worryingly, freight traffic across the European airport network – an es-tablished bellwether of economic performance - fell by (0.5%) with the de-crease at non-EU airports (5.3%) weighing heavily on the overall figure (freight traffic at EU airports fell by (0.1%)).Aircraft movements were up +1.1%, reflecting limited additional airline capac-ity being put back in the market.During the month of January, airports welcoming more than 25 million pas-sengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passen-gers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment +3.4%, +6.5%, +5.6% and +5.1%.Source: ACI Europe



• Middle East carriers had the strongest year-over-year traffic growth in January at 11.4%. Market’s measures of business activity in non-oil sec-tors in the region’s economies continue to show improvement, suggest-ing Middle Eastern economies are comparatively well-placed to with-stand the plunge in oil revenues. Capacity rose 13.3% and load factor dipped 1.3 percentage points to 79.7%.

• Latin American airlines’ traffic rose 5.6%. Capacity rose 5.1% and load factor climbed 0.4 percentage points to 81.2%, highest among the re-gions. While growth in the Brazilian economy has stagnated, regional trade volumes have continued to improve in recent months.

• African airlines saw January traffic slip 0.7% compared to January 2014. The weakness in international air travel for regional carriers is not be-lieved to be attributable to the Ebola outbreak. Rather, it appears to re-flect negative economic developments in parts of the continent including Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy, which is suffering from the col-lapse in oil prices. With capacity up 0.7%, load factor fell 1.0 percentage point to 68.1%, the lowest among the regions.

Source: IATA


OURPARTNERAIRLINES

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 53

SPAIN TRAFFICThe Spanish air transport market expanded by 9.1% in December 2014 over December 2013 in terms of number of passengers traveling to, from & within Spain, and is estimated to have grown in January 2015 by 10.9% compared to January 2014.



Partner Airlines


LATEST NEWSIAG releases February traffic statistics: Group traffic inFebruary, measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres, increased by 5.5% versus February 2014; Group capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres rose by 4.3%. Group premium traffic for the month of February increased by 2.8% compared to 2014.Strategic Developments:Iberia and its subsidiary Iberia Express were the world’s most punctual airlines in January according to the latest ranking published by FlightStats. Iberia led network carriers with 92.72% of flights on time while Iberia Express achieved 96.34% punctuality the highest score among LCCs. The airline’s improvement in operational performance has been a key aspect of its restructuring.British Airways is changing its ‘On Business’ loyalty scheme for small and medi-um sized businesses to incorporate American Airlines and Iberia. The new part-nership will allow On Business members to benefit from collecting and spend-ing across all three airlines under one programme.Vueling has become the first airline to offer a self service baggage check-in at its hub in Barcelona.

Looking at the Spanish market traffic flows, the international European mar-ket represented in December 2014 65.8% of the total market, and is expected to have grown to 67.2% in January 2015. Traffic between the Arab world and Spain represented 2.5% of the total Spanish market in December 2014, and is estimated to have shrunk to 2.1% in January 2015.

In December 2014, Ryanair was the biggest carrier operating to, from and within Spain by number of passengers, boarding 1.6 million pax, which repre-sented an increase of 12.6% over December 2013 operations.

Top 15 Airlines Operating in the Spanish MarketAirline Dec-14 Change Airline Dec-14 Change

FR 1,600,932 12.6% ZB 176,827 23.4%IB 1,119,181 5.7% LH 169,747 (10.9%)VY 823,818 4.6% AF 155,065 (0.4%)U2 736,249 2.3% BA 146,273 29.3%UX 552,107 8.6% KL 126,848 (3.5%)AB 406,934 (1.0%) DE 123,942 5.6%DY 306,104 20.4% X3 112,330 (3.9%)NT 204,811 (1.0%) Grand Total 8,417,034 9.1%

Source: AACO, IATA-20%

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http://www.iairgroup.com

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 55

In December 2014, easyJet was the biggest carrier operating to, from and within the UK by number of passengers, boarding 2.68 million pax, which rep-resented an increase of 10.7% over December 2013 operations.


Top 15 Airlines Operating in the UK MarketAirline Dec-14 Change Airline Dec-14 Change

U2 2,685,541 10.7% W6 296,234 26.5%FR 2,249,449 20.9% ZB 283,178 21.8%BA 2,183,097 5.7% LH 266,376 (19.7%)BE 546,841 3.9% DY 261,781 34.0%VS 400,198 2.2% AF 181,661 (15.9%)EK 371,200 11.4% 4U 169,561 115.8%KL 321,817 3.6% LX 154,216 2.8%EI 318,536 (3.2%) Grand Total 13,665,564 10.1%

Source: AACO, IATA

Partner Airlines



UK TRAFFICThe UK air transport market expanded by 10.1% in December 2014 over De-cember 2013 in terms of number of passengers traveling to, from and within the UK, and is expected to have grown by 13.2% in January 2015 compared to January 2014.

Looking at the UK market traffic flows, the international European market rep-resented in December 2014 61.2% of the total market, and is expected to have grown to 61.9% in January 2015. Traffic between the Arab world and the UK represented 4.3% of the total UK market in December 2014, and is expected to have maintained its level in January 2015.

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Passenger Numbers' Change in the UK Air Transport MarketOct14-Dec14 & Nov14-Jan15* compared to same period in previous year

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 57

Partner Airlines


LATEST NEWSJet Airways unveils ‘#JetInstant’ on Twitter: Jet Airways unveiled #JetInstant, a first of its kind online feature that enables guests to access information on fares and flight status in real-time through Twitter.The customer-centric initiative is part of Jet Airways’ strategy to simplify the travel experience and engage with guests on a real-time basis. The initiative, developed in collaboration with Twitter and technology partner, TravelSpends, will see Jet Airways set a new industry benchmark in customer service.Jet Airways posts first quarterly operating profit since December 2012 as turnaround strategy gains momentum: Jet Airways Group today posted its first profit in seven quarters and announced a significantly improved perfor-mance for the third quarter ending 31 December 2014, with key operating parameters showing strong progress. Compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year, Jet Airways’ financial performance improved by INR 287 crores or 101%. The net profit before taxes is INR 3 crores compared to a net loss of INR 284 crores for the same period in 2014.

INDIA TRAFFICThe Indian air transport market grew by 9.5% in December 2014 over Decem-ber 2013 in terms of number of passengers traveling to, from and within India, and is estimated to have grown by 20.4% in January 2015 compared to Janu-ary 2014.


In December 2014, Indigo Airlines was the biggest carrier operating to, from and within India by number of passengers, boarding 2.23 million pax, which represented an increase of 37.1% over December 2013 operations.

Top 15 Airlines Operating in the Indian MarketAirline Dec-14 Change Airline Dec-14 Change

6E 2,239,779 37.1% EY 148,603 74.4%9W 1,557,885 18.1% QR 146,438 7.7%AI 1,387,445 15.5% SQ 133,681 (5.1%)SG 984,220 (35.3%) G9 131,497 (3.0%)G8 563,458 18.0% TG 120,720 22.4%EK 492,731 13.3% SV 111,155 14.7%S2 241,519 (17.6%) WY 106,045 2.9%IX 216,702 (9.9%) Grand Total 10,069,679 9.5%

Source: AACO, IATA


Looking at the Indian market traffic flows, the domestic market represented in December 2014 58.9% of the total market, and is estimated to have shrunk to 57.9% in January 2015. Traffic between the Arab world and India represented 16.3% of the total Indian market in December 2014, and is estimated to have expanded to 16.5% in January 2015.

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 59

Partner Airlines


LATEST NEWSTurkish Airlines records USD 845 million net profit, and USD 638 million op-erating profit in 2014: Turkish Airlines’ 2014 consolidated financial statements were reported to Borsa Istanbul. Compared to 2013, Turkish Airlines sales revenue increased by 13% in 2014, reaching a total of USD 11 billion. While operating profit stood at USD 638 million, more than doubling compared to previous year USD 845 million net profit was recorded.Turkish Airlines increases the number of flight destinations to 17 from Sabi-ha Gokcen International Airport: Turkish Airlines will commence Sabiha Gok-cen-Baku flights on 15 March. Flights between Sabiha Gokcen and Baku will be operated on a daily basis.Turkish Airlines begins operations to Abuja: Turkish Airlines added its 262nd network destination with the addition of Abuja as from 3 March.

TURKEY TRAFFICThe Turkish air transport market in December 2014 grew by 12.1% over De-cember 2013 in terms of number of passengers traveling to, from and within Turkey, and is estiamted to have grown in January 2015 by 5.9% compared to January 2014.


Looking at the Turkish market traffic flows, the domestic market was the big-gest market. It accounted for 47.5% of December 2014 traffic, and is expected to have shrunk to 46.1% in January 2015. The European market (international traffic between Turkey and Europe) was the second biggest market, account-ing for 33.2% of December 2014 traffic, and is expected to have expanded to 35.4% in January 2015. On the other hand, traffic between the Arab world and Turkey represented 7.9% of the total Turkish market in December 2014, and is expected to have grown to 8.3% in January 2015.

Source: AACO, IATA *EstimatedIn December 2014, Turkish Airlines was the biggest carrier operating to, from and within Turkey by number of passengers, boarding 2.64 million pax, which represented an increase of 13.9% over December 2013 operations.

Top 15 Airlines Operating in the Turkish MarketAirline Dec-14 Change Airline Dec-14 Change

TK 2,640,369 13.9% AB 35,293 5.1%PC 1,045,526 8.7% J2 31,526 (6.6%)XQ 267,191 8.0% SV 27,444 126.2%8Q 216,854 32.2% XY 26,239 15.0%KK 203,396 17.5% W5 24,284 4.3%SU 42,354 9.0% QR 22,987 43.1%LH 40,338 (22.5%) A3 22,674 171.6%EK 35,764 3.1% Grand Total 5,135,226 12.1%

Source: AACO, IATA

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OURINDUSTRYPARTNERS NEWS

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 63

Oman to welcome 1.6 million cruise tourists by 2020: Accord-ing to a recent study commissioned by Amadeus the travel mar-

ket in Oman is poised for unprecedented growth over the next 15 years. The report titled “Shaping the Future of Travel in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Big Travel Effects” suggests that diversification of the economy and a youth-driven population may very well be among the key drivers of growth in Oman’s travel sector.The report states that the increasing focus of GCC countries on enhancing their destination offerings is positioning the tourism sector as a key contributor to regional economies. More specifically, massive investments on infrastructural development and destination attractions are driving the region’s specialty tourism sectors such as sports, medical and cruise tourism on a global level.To this end, Oman Tourism has joined hands with Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority and Dubai’s Department of Tourism to peg the Arabian Peninsula as an emerging cruise destination for the world. With the number of cruise tourists increasing year-on-year, the region is expecting 1.6 million cruise tour-ists by the year 2020 and 2.1 million by 2030.The report also states that additional unfolding demographic factors such as a steady inflow of expatriate workers, robust natural population growth and a growing middle class will combine to drive a new and divergent set of travel behaviours and needs in the region. Among the other factors that drive the growth, the unified visa system that has been implemented for tourists between Oman, the UAE and Qatar, is worth a special mention.To download a free copy of the report please click here.What is the biggest benefit of personalisation in the travel industry?: Creating a more personalised travel experience not only benefits travellers, but also travel players by presenting them with new mer-chandising opportunities. A truly personalised and dynamic shopping experience has the potential to help airlines unlock more than USD 130 billion in additional revenues by 2020.But, we wanted to hear what the industry thought the biggest benefit of personalisation was in the travel industry based on the results of a poll Amadeus hosted on sha-pethefutureoftravel.com.Here’s what we found: 36.21 % – Improving loyalty: Most of you indicated that personali-sation has the capability to improve customer loyalty. Perhaps, it’s that perfectly organised holiday by your travel agent? Or maybe you’d be more loyal to a travel agency with the ability to anticipate and react to travel disruptionswith alternative options just for you?27.59% – Increasing differentiation: After improving loyalty, many of you though that personalisation can increase differentiation. Could it be that travellers are more likely to recall your offers if they are distinctively personalised to their tastes giving them the feeling of being a VIP?25.86% – Reducing costs: Some of you think that reducing costs is the biggest benefit of personalisation in the travel industry. Imagine being able to inspire travellers with exactly the right offer they are looking for at exactly the right time. This would undoubtedly help you make better use of advertising budgets and even lower costs in the long run.10.34% – Increasing margin per customer: Surprisingly enough, increasing margin per customer was seen as the least significant benefit of personalisation in the travel industry. Could it be that the above men-tioned are much more powerful elements or that you’ve yet to read our posts on using personalisation to drive sales and how it can increase basket size by as much as €12-15 for airlines?

Amadeus - AACO Partner since 2000

Our Partners News


The aviation industry is a vital enabler of the UAE economy. With growth of air traffic expected to in-crease from 2,200 flight movements a day in 2014 to 5,100 flight movements daily in 2030, optimizing airspace is critical to handling increasing capacity demands, efficiency and overall growth. Recognizing such importance, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has strategically invested in under-standing its airspace challenges and implementing the necessary changes.

GCAA has launched major en route and flow management initiative with Airbus ProSky, in fact Airbus ProSky has identified Air Traffic Management (ATM), airspace and Communication, Navigation and Sur-veillance (CNS) challenges resulting in 53 recommendations for improvement. UAE aviation strategies rests as a top strategy for the GCAA. The UAE airspace is considered amongst the busiest in the world and therefore enhancing the safety and efficiency of air traffic operations would be key.

Airbus has selected the 100 teams that have made it into Round Two of the fourth edition of the global student competition Fly Your Ideas, organised in partnership with UNESCO, after a thorough evaluation process by over 50 Airbus experts and innovators judging more than 500 ideas.

The 100 teams comprise of 413 students representing 48 different nationalities. The two teams from the Middle East comprise of four students from the UAE and five from Jordan. The UAE team is working on innovating a passenger entertainment system with a noise cancellation headset and a smart goggle. The Jordan team, meanwhile, are working towards innovating a sophisticated server which stores data transmitted from CVR and FDR. Other representatives from the Middle East also come from Syria, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Airbus - AACO Partner since 1997

http://blogamadeus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Shaping-the-Future-of-Travel-in-the-GCC.pdf

http://www.amadeus.com/blog/category/personalised-travel-2/

http://www.amadeus.com/blog/category/personalised-travel-2/

http://www.amadeus.com/web/amadeus/en_1A-corporate/Amadeus-Home/Why-Amadeus/130-by-2020/1319608138884-Page-AMAD_SolutionDetailPpal%3FBLOG%3D18259

http://www.amadeus.com/web/amadeus/en_1A-corporate/amadeus/1319580063667-Page-AMAD_WhyAmadeusPpal

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 65

Our Partners News


ADNOC Distribution is an integrated oil energy company. Founded in 1973, ADNOC Dis-tribution market and distributes petroleum products and services within the United Arab Emirates.As one of the largest government-owned petroleum companies in the Arab Gulf, ADNOC Distribution has grown to become a national institution and a major economic driver for the UAE economy.

The company is renowned for its innovative and dynamic approach offering a wide variety of petroleum and natural gas products and services. ADNOC Distribution is committed to providing its customers and strategic partners with reliable products of exceptional quality and services.

Regional Main ContactName: Mr. Naser Hasan Saleh, International Aviation Sales Department.Sales Manager-AVSD - Aviation Sales DivisionTelephone: +97126901419Fax: +97126723399Email: [email protected]: www.adnoc-dist.ae

Air France Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France is special-ized in air transport consulting, training, management and reengineering

services, located at Roissy CDG airport. Air France Consulting calls on about 200 highly specialized international experts coming mostly from Air France and the SkyTeam Alliance who have built a field proven experience and whose competencies are recognized by the industry. Acting independently with flexibility, Air France Consulting proposes a comprehensive approach on key domains of the air transport such as operations, finance and commer-cial, maintenance, etc... whether to make you a diagnosis or audit, to set up new or improved processes driven by proven change management techniques or define a coaching and training program.

● Performance and conformity of flight and ground operations: EU-Ops, IR-Ops and FCL, CRM, SMS, ETOPS, IOSA & ISAGO Assistance, TRTO, Airline operations organization…)

● Drivers to reduce costs and increase revenues (Business Plan, Cost control, Network and Fleet, Rev-enue Management Pricing, Customer Relationship Management, E-business solutions, Fuel conser-vation Program, ETS, Procurement process…)

● Fleet Asset Management: aircraft specifications, acquisition, lease, sales ● Maintenance Repair Overhaul & Supply Chain: EASA 145/ 147 / 21 / 66 / 147, MCC, line mainte-

nance and operational regulatory support, maintenance IT support, supply chain optimization ● Emergency and Crisis Response plan with a strong emphasis on customer oriented solutions

● Air France Consulting shares the ambitions of its customers through customized solutions, thanks to a flexible structure ensuring responsiveness and close proximity.

For more information, please contact us at, Telephone: +33 1 7425 4162, email: [email protected]

ADNOC - AACO Partner since 2002

Air France Consulting - AACO Partner since 2008

AIRWAYS AVIATION IS THE LEADING GLOBAL EDUCATOR IN AVIATION.We bring together international companies with more than 30 years of

aviation experience to offer world-class flight training for aspiring pilots from locations around the world.Airways Aviation provides a full suite of aeroplane and helicopter flight training courses approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as well as pilot education programs approved by the Civil Avia-tion Safety Authority (CASA) in Australia, the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) in Jordan and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Montenegro.Our Pilot Training Academies located in the UK, Australia, Jordan and Montenegro, provide centralised locations for advanced flight and theory training that prepares students to fly for international commer-cial airlines. We have also created a unique international foundation pathway, providing a meaningful introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of aviation for students with little or no aviation experience, which is delivered at our Aviation Theory Schools in the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan and Malaysia.As our reputation grows, our education and training facilities are expanding to meet exponential interna-tional demand for quality flight training and qualified pilots.For further information please contact us at [email protected] Main ContactName: Mr. Yuseph HawattPosition: Business Development ManagerTelephone: +971 4368 8607Email: [email protected]: www.airwaysaviation.com

Airways Aviation - AACO Partner since 2014

APG starts the year strongly by adding four more airlines to its APG IET platform: APG IET, the Interline E-Ticketing platform operated by APG which allows IATA travel agents to e-ticket non-BSP airlines on APG IET e-documents (YO-747) has already added four further airlines to the plat-

form in 2015. LIAT, based in the Caribbean, Air Bagan from Myanmar, Garuda Indonesia, and Georgian Airways all went live in January 2015. Juneyao Airlines, based in Shanghai and US Carrier Cape Air also joined at the end of 2014. Adding airlines each month, APG IET now features 112 airlines from around the world. Mr. Richard Burgess, President of the APG Network commented “This constitutes a great start to the year and further underlines the strong interest from airlines in the additional revenue that APG IET can deliver. A number of AACO member airlines already participate in APG IET and we hope to welcome more if its members onto the platform in the future”.APG IET allows tickets to be issued for airlines not on BSP and combination itineraries with airlines with no direct interline agreements. IATA travel agents simply book flights via their GDS in the normal way and choose YO-747 as the ticketing carrier. The product is supported locally through the global APG network spanning over 150 countries.Further information is available at www.apgiet.comAPG Network is the world’s leading network for Airline Distribution and Financial Services. With 111 APG Network Associates and Services Partners, we are present in 176 countries and have commercial rela-tionships with 180 airlines. Services include GSSA – General Sales Representation Services, IBCS – Vari-able Cost Access to BSP, AACP – Variable Cost Access to ARC Settlement System for USA, AATP – APG Air Travel Plan, IET – Interline E-Ticketing, FFS – ATPCO Fare Filing services, CCS – Call Centre Services and GET – Global Extended Territories services. APG Network organizes yearly the great social and informative renowned event: the APG World Connect Conference on Airline Distribution.

APG Network - AACO Partner since 2015

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 67

Our Partners News


Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company’s strength – delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately – is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial infor-mation to more than 315,000 subscribers globally. Bloomberg Industries (BI) provides subscribers interac-tive, continuously updated industry research and data. BI’s team of more than 100 research professionals covers over 100 industries globally, offering in-depth data and analysis for each industry’s drivers, metrics, competitors, themes and earnings. The BI portal also aggregates information from more than 200 third-party providers.

Regional Main ContactName: Mr. George T. Ferguson, IV, CFA, Senior Analyst Aerospace/Defense & AirlinesTelephone: +1- 609.279.3591Email: [email protected]: www.bloomberg.com

Bloomberg - AACO Partner since 2013

Toulouse, Southern France based regional aircraft manufacturer ATR is the world leader in the 50 to 74-seat turboprop market. The ATR 42 and ATR 72 are the perfect solution on short-haul routes around the world. ATR has become the leader in its category by offering reliable, easy-to-maintain, comfortable and

environment-friendly aircraft to airlines operating on the regional transport market, at a cost well below that of its competitors. ATR was established in November 1981 and benefits from the experience and know-how of two of the major leading European aerospace industries, Alenia Aermacchi and the Airbus Group, who each have a 50% share in the ATR programme. Since its creation, ATR has sold over 1,400 aircraft to over 180 operators based in 91 countries. ATR planes have totaled over 21 million flight hours. It currently has 1000 aircraft flying over 90 countries of the world in the livery of more than 180 airlines. ATR is also well established in the Africa & Middle East region, with more than 100 aircraft flying for 35 carriers over 25 countries.ATR is committed to a continuous process of improvement of its aircraft to meet the market needs and passenger appeal. According to this principle, ATR launched in 2007 the newest ATR -600 series aircraft, which entered into service in 2011. Both the ATR 42-600 and the ATR 72-600 feature the latest techno-logical enhancements while building upon the well-known advantages of the ‘–500 series’ ATRs, namely their high efficiency, proven dispatch reliability and low fuel burn and operating cost. The new ATR -600 series feature new cabin interior designs and a totally new full-glass avionics suite, and has become the new reference among regional aircraft all over the world.Regional Main ContactName: Mr. Milco Rappuoli, Sales DirectorTelephone: +33 5 62 21 65 83 Fax: +33 5 62 21 66 76Email: [email protected] ATR - AACO Partner since 1998

Brand awareness and loyalty are key pieces to a strong product strategy. Distinguishing your brand from the competition is critical, but establishing the difference between your own brands is also important. Your custom-

ers need to know exactly what to look for when they are shopping and what kind of experience they can expect from each of your brands. Whether your customer is a frequent business traveler or the discern-ing flyer that is looking for a luxury experience, you need to be able to create meaningful brand differen-tiation through variation of fares and services based on features that bring value to a particular customer segment. ATPCO has the solution to help you do exactly that.

ATPCO’s Branded Fares helps you to tailor your services and branding to specific traveler segments to emphasize the value of your offering rather than just focusing on price. It helps boost revenue by creat-ing up-sell opportunities; grow customer satisfaction by allowing buyers to choose fares that better suit their needs; and ensure accurate and consistent presentation of fare brands across all points of sale.

As competition on global routes continues to grow, you need the right tool to help you distinguish your brand and build customer loyalty. As your trusted technology partner, ATPCO provides you with that tool. Would you like to know more about ATPCO’s Branded Fares? We are available to provide counsel and answer questions. Please feel free to contact us.

Europe, Middle East and AfricaMr. Frank Socha, Regional [email protected]+44-20-8572-1322 ATPCO - AACO Partner since 2014

Creating Value * Sector Expertise * Rigor & Discipline

Founded in 2002, Apollo Aviation Group (“Apollo Aviation”) is a multi-strategy alternative investment manager specializing in commercial avia-

tion including buying, selling and leasing aircraft and engines. With more than USD 1.50 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2013, we are one of the world’s leading mid-life and mature commercial aircraft and engine operating lessors and investment managers. In the first quarter of 2013, Apollo Aviation formed, AAG Capital Markets LLC (AAGCM), to manage investments in aviation securities. AAGCM now has more than USD 250 million of assets under manage-ment.Led by its founders, William Hoffman and Robert Korn, Apollo Aviation is currently investing a near USD 595 million real asset fund, the Sciens Aviation Special Opportunities Investment Fund II (“SASOF II”), and harvesting a USD 213 million real asset fund, Sciens Aviation Special Opportunities Investment Fund (“SASOF”) as well as several private accounts. We have built a strong team with deep industry knowledge and extensive relationships throughout the world’s aviation industry. We seek innovative and creative solutions to create value.Regional Main ContactName: Mr. Pascal Picano, Head of Global MarketingTelephone: +353 1 497 6621Fax: +353 1 497 6317Email: [email protected]: www.apollo.aero

Apollo- AACO Partner since 2013

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 69

Our Partners News


CFM orders soar in 2014: In 2014, as CFM International celebrated its 40th anniversary, the company ex-perienced the highest levels of new engine orders and production in its history. CFM logged orders for a total of 4,244 engines, including 1,527 CFM56 engines (commercial, military and spares) and 2,717 LEAP engines. These orders are valued at more than USD 50 billion at list price.By comparison, CFM booked a total of 2,723 CFM56 and LEAP engine orders in 2013 at a value of USD 31 billion at list price.As the company logs record commitments, CFM is also achieving historic production rates for the CFM56 product line. The company delivered 1,560 CFM56 engines in 2014, compared to 1,502 in 2013. CFM has the highest production rate in the industry and has consistently built more than 1,000 engines per year since 2006.

CFM - AACO Partner since 1998

StandardAero recognized as authorized Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Her-cules Quick Engine Change Service Center: Lockheed Martin has designated StandardAero as an authorized Quick Engine Change (QEC) Service Center to provide QEC maintenance services for the C130J Super Hercules aircraft.

With an effective date of 29 January 2015, this authorization formalizes a support arrangement with a key original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for C-130J QEC services that StandardAero has been per-forming since 2000.This official designation complements StandardAero’s existing Lockheed Martin QEC authorization to support the C-130B-H legacy Hercules aircraft. StandardAero also holds Rolls-Royce Authorized Mainte-nance Center status on the AE2100 and T56 turboprop engines for these aircraft, as well as full capability on the 54H60 Propeller.This partnership provides current C-130J operators with additional alternatives for propulsion sustain-ment and support by leveraging StandardAero’s more than 50 years of MRO experience on T56 and AE2100 turboprop engines.This new license agreement allows StandardAero to perform QEC services through the end of 2017, with renewal options available. Services will be provided at the company’s Winnipeg, Canada facility.StandardAero supports a number of C-130 fleets and operators around the world via contracts with the Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Netherlands Air Force, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard, among others.In addition, StandardAero’s environmentally friendly repair shops hold the following certifications: ISO/EN 9001 – Quality Management System, ISO 14001 – Environmental Management System, AS 9110 – Aerospace Quality Management System for MRO and many other OEM and customer authorizations.

DAE - AACO Partner since 2014

Mr. Arnaud Lambert named CEO of CHAMP Cargosystems: CHAMP Cargosystems has appointed Mr. Arnaud Lambert as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 February 2015. Mr. Arnaud had previously been a member of the Executive Committee at CHAMP Cargosystems and most recently held the position of Vice President of Global Service Delivery for CHAMP worldwide. Mr. Arnaud has over 15 years experi-ence in the air cargo industry and previously held management positions at Cargolux Airlines and Procter & Gamble. Mr. Arnaud holds a Master in Business and Management Engineering from the Louvain School of Management in Belgium.

CHAMP Cargosystems is “International IT Systems Provider of the Year” in Africa: The STAT Trade Times, popularly known as STAT TIMES, recently presented the STAT TIMES INTERNATIONAL AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN AIR CARGO in 11 categories as part of the Air Cargo Africa 2015 conference held in South Africa. CHAMP Cargosystems was nominated “International IT Systems Provider of the Year in Af-rica” for the second time in a row. This award recognizes CHAMP’s contribution as an industry leader in the provision of the most comprehensive range of integrated IT (Information Technology) solutions and distribution services for the air cargo industry. CHAMP has achieved this position through the support of its customers and partners and thanked them all at the gala award event.

CHAMP - AACO Partner since 2010

Boeing, LATAM Airlines Group celebrate delivery of airline’s first 787-9 Dreamliner: Boeing and LATAM Airlines Group celebrated the delivery of the airline’s first 787-9 Dreamliner. LATAM Airlines Group is leasing the

new airplane from Amsterdam-based lessor AerCap.LATAM Airlines Group will become Latin America’s first operator of both the 787-8 and 787-9 variants of the Dreamliner family when the airline group launches 787-9 services on South American routes in April.With this delivery, LATAM Airlines Group will have 11 787s in its fleet, the most in Latin America. The company is building a fleet of 32 787 Dreamliners, including 10 787-9s, over the next several years.British Airways receives operational approval for Boeing Electronic Logbook: Boeing announced that British Airways received operational approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority for use of Boeing’s Electronic Logbook (ELB) on their 787 Dreamliner fleet. Developed in partnership with Ultramain Systems, Inc., ELB enables unprecedented levels of communica-tion between flight crew, cabin crew and ground-based maintenance and engineering staff, which trans-lates into better passenger service and greater airline cost savings.Boeing, Korean Air announce order for five 777 Freighters: Boeing and Korean Air today finalized an order for five 777 Freighters. The order, valued at more than USD 1.5 billion at current list prices, will add further efficiency and reliability to Korean Air’s all-Boeing freighter fleet.Boeing, Transavia announce order for up to 20 Next-Generation 737-800s: Boeing and Transavia Com-pany, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Air France KLM Group, today announced an order for 17 Next-Generation 737-800s, including options for three additional airplanes. The order, valued at USD 1.6 billion at current list prices, was previously booked and attributed to an unidentified customer on the Boeing Orders & Deliveries website.

Boeing- AACO Partner since 1998

http://www.cfm56.com

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 71

Our Partners News


Gourmet meals in coach? How do you manage that?: Airline meal options are becoming more plentiful and delicious. Some airlines are going gourmet and others are offering culinary delights from celebrity chefs. What is clear however

is that offering more culinary options to travelers has the potential to directly impact an airline’s brand by increasing customer satisfaction and boosting loyalty, making it a great topic for the Farelogix Use Case Challenge. If your airline is looking for a way to approach premium meals for your economy cabin, a good starting place is to consider what meals you will offer, what conditions would be required for a particular meal to make it onto your menu (based on markets, flights, regions, etc.), and what you will charge for the meals while taking into account personalization and loyalty status.No matter which elements you consider for a premium meal offering, they can easily be configured in FLX Merchandise. For example, a full catalog of meal options spanning a range of foods, meals, markets and tastes – each with corresponding descriptions, images and rich content – can be easily defined. You could even use bundles to group meals together as menu choices, the details of which would re-flect your airline’s business rules. In addition, while a meal’s base price may be USD 4.08, a variety of discounts can be offered depending on which fare brand the traveler has selected or based on frequent traveler status. For example, a traveler with Tier 2 status may get a 50% discount on the meal, as do all travelers who opt for the “FLEX” fare brand.We have only scratched the surface of what is possible when managing meals in a strategic merchandis-ing environment. Whichever way you decide to configure your offerings, Farelogix has the technology you need to support your strategy.Visit the Farelogix blog (blog.farelogix.com) for the complete use case example, or contact UAE-based Mr. Rui Sequeira, Vice President, Sales and Business Development at Farelogix, to schedule a meeting to discuss your airline’s merchandising challenge. Farelogix - AACO Partner since 2013

GE Capital Aviation Services to lease three new Boeing 737-800s to new customer Air India Express: GE Capital Aviation Services Limited (GECAS), the commercial aircraft leasing arm of GE, announced it signed a contract to lease three new Boeing 737-800 aircraft to new customer Air India Express. Deliveries of the aircraft are scheduled for 2016 and are part of GECAS’ existing order book with Boeing.Air India Express is the low-cost subsidiary of Air India and operates a fleet of 17 aircraft to some 30 des-tinations.

GECAS - AACO Partner since 2003

GE’s composite fan blade revolution turns 20 years old: GE Aviation is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first jet engine to certify with composite fan blades. Powering an early model of Boeing’s 777 aircraft, the first GE90 engine certified in February 1995—and thus marked the first aviation use of the revolutionary composite fiber polymeric material on a

jet engine’s front fan blade. In the 1980s, GE Aviation gained experience with composite fan blades on its experimental GE36 open rotor jet engine that successfully ground-tested and flew. This bolstered GE to use composite fan blades for the GE90 engine, which required a lightweight, durable material solution for the engine’s large front fan.GE’s bet on composite fan blades for the GE90 has paid off. For one, the composite blade is critical to the GE90’s record thrust. And the highly-popular GE90-powered 777s are among the most fuel-efficient and reliable commercial jetliners in history. With more than 2,000 GE90 engines delivered, the composite fan blade has become a landmark technology for GE and has influenced succeeding generations of GE com-mercial engines, including the GEnx and the new GE9X. But achieving certification of that first composite fan blade was no easy feat. GE Aviation encountered challenges in the design, certification and manufacturing of these unique three-dimensional fan blades.For certification, GE worked extensively with Boeing, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and cus-tomers to educate them on the attributes of carbon fiber composite material. This information sharing paved the way for engine certification.To manufacture the composite fan blade, GE teamed up with Snecma of France to create CFAN in 1993 located in San Marcos, Texas.

General Electric - AACO Partner since 2014

Engine Lease Finance Corporation (ELFC) has become the go-to spare engine lessor in the MENA region. In 2013 and 2014 we provided short and long term spare engine

leases to long-standing customers, who have a clear preference to lease from ELFC over any other, based on their experience of working with us.However, we also opened business with new airlines for the first time. Including considerable sale-lease-back transactions. Our message is now almost universally accepted that ELF transactions offer:A means to pass on future engine value risk;Potential to generate profit for your airline;Cost efficiency – ELFC’s fixed monthly rental rates compare favourably to continued ownership costs;Reduced need for airlines to tie-up capital in spare engines, it is more efficient to rent for as long as nec-essary from ELFC.Open access to ELFC’s independent dedicated technical team.Our reputation as the largest and most financially capable independent aero-engine lessor is further en-hanced this year by the transition to our new parent, Mitsubishi UFJ Lease and Finance Company (MUL). The benefits to ELFC of this transfer of ownership are manifold: on the one hand it retains the strength of the financially-powerful ownership of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and on the other, by moving from the banking side of the Group to the leasing side, it becomes more closely aligned within the asset-management culture developed under MUL’s flexible, non-banking organisation. We have spare engines available to lease to your airline and we have the financial strength to provide favourable terms for sale-leaseback.For more information, please contact SVP Mr. Julian Jordan at e-mail: [email protected]

ELFC - AACO Partner since 2003

http://blog.farelogix.com/2015/02/use-case-challenge-premium-meals-for-the-economy-cabin/

http://blog.farelogix.com/2015/02/use-case-challenge-premium-meals-for-the-economy-cabin/

http://www.farelogix.com/merchandising.html

http://blog.farelogix.com/2015/01/introducing-the-flx-merchandise-use-case-challenge/

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Issue 96 - Mar 2015 73

Our Partners News


HP launches new open network switches for web scale cloud data centers: HP an-nounced a new line of open network switches for the data center that will provide Web scale organizations and service providers more flexibility and control of their data center networks to power cloud, mobile, social media and big data workloads.HP’s new line of switches provides web scale customers with increased choice in open

network environments and the ability to tune their data center networks to their requirements. The new network switches address customer needs with dedicated sales teams, choice of hardware and software, and branded switches that are backed by worldwide local support and services through HP Technology Services, enabling customers to streamline operations and reduce supply chain risk. These new products are among the first in the industry in the emerging new category of branded white box switches, known as brite box switches.(1)

HP will deliver these new network switches to Web scale data center customers through partnerships with Accton Technology Corporation and Cumulus Networks. (1) Brite box network switches are an emerging category of switches, described by Gartner in a recent report: “This approach essentially ‘splits the difference’ between traditional

and white-box switching.” Gartner, The Future of Data Center Network Switches Looks ‘Brite’, Andrew Lerner, Joe Skorupa, 01 December 2014.

HP delivers predictive snalytics at big data scale: HP unveiled HP Haven Predictive Analytics, a new of-fering that accelerates and operationalizes large-scale machine learning and statistical analysis, and ulti-mately provides organizations with much deeper insights and understanding into today’s rapidly evolving data volumes.Powered by HP’s innovative Distributed R offering, the new release dramatically improves performance and enables users to analyze much larger data sets than was previously possible with the popular R sta-tistical programing language.

HP - AACO Partner since 2014

Hogan Lovells is a global legal practice that helps corporations, financial institutions, and governmental entities across the spectrum of their critical business and legal is-sues globally and locally. We have over 2,500 lawyers operating out of more than 40 offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.Hogan Lovells is one of a small number of leading global law firms with in-depth knowledge in aviation-related matters worldwide. Our aviation team regularly re-

ceives first-tier rankings from Chambers USA., which notes in its 2014 edition “An excellent law firm, staffed by outstanding attorneys, that achieves results; impressive by any measure.” We are also known for strong cross-border and asset finance work in global markets, earning praise from The Legal 500 for “clarity of thought, a solutions-driven approach and exceptionally talented partners.“Clients benefit from our aviation lawyers’ experience in public service, which include positions as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Special Assistant to the Secretary of Transpor-tation, Special Counsel to the Administrator of the FAA, Special Assistant to a member of the National Transportation Safety Board and Executive Assistant to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Civil Aeronautics Board. In addition, our aviation lawyers team with lawyers from the firm’s network of more than 40 of-fices worldwide to address a broad range of legal issues, including antitrust, corporate, finance, environ-mental, tax, litigation, lobbying, and regulatory matters.We represent all segments of the aviation industry, such as air carriers, airports, corporate aircraft own-ers and operators, municipalities, aerospace manufacturers, repair facilities, aviation trade associations, foreign governments, business aviation operators, fractional ownership providers, unmanned aircraft systems providers and operators, and aircraft leasing and financing organizations. The insights we derive from our diverse practice enable us to achieve our clients’ goals more efficiently and effectively.

Hogan Lovells - AACO Partner since 2014

Gogo Vision now installed on more than 1700 commercial aircraft: Gogo Inc. an-nounced that its wireless in-flight entertainment product – Gogo Vision – is now in-stalled on more than 1,700 commercial aircraft across six major airlines and contin-ues to roll out in the business aviation market. Today, more than half of the aircraft

flying around the world with wireless in-flight entertainment are equipped with the Gogo Vision product.Gogo Vision allows passengers to rent movies and television shows on their own Wi-Fi enabled laptops, tablets or smartphones. Gogo has currently licensed more than 200 movies and close to 200 television shows from most of the major Hollywood studios. Most content is in the DVD release window, but Gogo is the first provider of wireless in-flight entertainment with some content in the early release window.Gogo on track for record aircraft installs in 2015: Gogo Inc. announcedthat it’s on track for record air-craft installs in 2015. The company now has a backlog of well more than 1,000 commercial aircraft, more than half of which are expected to be installed in 2015. With the large backlog in commercial aviation and the company’s current trends in business aviation, Gogo expects to install a record number of air-craft in 2015. Recently announced domestic regional jet installs and certain international fleet wins are expected to make up the bulk of the installs for 2015. Gogo expects to bring 500 additional commercial aircraft online by the end of 2015, which would bring the total number of commercial aircraft equipped with its connectivity service to more than 2600. Of the new installs, around 25% are expected to be international aircraft.In addition to new installs, Gogo continues to upgrade previously-installed ATG systems to its next gen-eration ATG-4 technology, which triples peak speeds to the aircraft and brings more capacity to the sky. More than a third of the aircraft on which ATG was installed have been upgraded to ATG-4. Gogo expects close to half the commercial fleet operating in the U.S., or more than 1,000 aircraft, to be upgraded to the newer technology by the end of 2015. Gogo - AACO Partner since 2014

Hahn Air - AACO Partner since 2014

Go global overnight!

With Hahn Air you can outsource your entire indirect sales process. Take advantage of e-alliance®, our one-stop-shop solution, and you will benefit from:

a. Distribution via 9 GDSs worldwideb. Access to over 95,000 travel agents in 190 marketsc. No segment feesd. No ticketing feese. No on-going GDS costsf. Access to Travel Management Companies / Corporate houses

Interested in boosting your global distribution while keeping complexity and costs away from your busi-ness? Then it is time to contact us at [email protected].

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Our Partners News


Established in January 1980 and based in Toulouse, IAS is the French Aero-space Industry Association (GIFAS) agency for international professional training. IAS mission is to design and implement professional training solu-tions dedicated to foreign professionals operating in the aeronautic and

space sector, as partners and/or customers of the French industry.Whether based upon the schools’ academic training or tailor-made by IAS, these solutions leverage the know-how of IAS educational partners and the expertise of its industrial lecturers coming from leading players such as Airbus Group, Thales Group, Dassault Aviation, and Safran Group.Backed by GIFAS, IAS can build upon its location in Toulouse (close proximity to ISAE, ENAC, CNES and the future Toulouse Montaudran Aerospace Technoparc), and its strong international network.IAS fast facts:• more than 3500 professionals from more than 100 countries trained to date,• customer portfolio of over 150 leading players in the aeronautic and space industry,• more than 10 training sessions per year,• 2013 turnover: 3.6 million Euros,• permanent staff: 12 (as of end 2013) working in 3 teams: Management, Business Development, and

Operations.Regional Main ContactName: Mrs. Monia Zaki, International Project ManagerTelephone: +33 5 62 17 33 83Fax: +33 5 61 55 16 97Email: [email protected]: www.inst-aero-spatial.org IAS - AACO Partner since 2008

Innovata, a global leader in travel and hospitality content management and distribution solutions is recognized as a major industry source for worldwide airline schedule and related data. As a partner of IATA in marketing the Schedule Reference Service (SRS) to the aviation and consulting industries,

Innovata maintains one of the world’s largest flight databases (passenger and cargo) representing more than 99% of the air segment miles flown worldwide, containing over 900 airlines, 95% of which are up-dated and refreshed every week.Innovata delivers comprehensive, accurate and reliable up to date information to meet a wide range of data service needs for aviation related industries and is the market leader in the provision of timetables and route mapping services, via all distribution channels, to airlines and airports worldwide.Take a look on the AACO website at the dynamic and interactive route network mapping service pro-duced by Innovata, showing direct routes, online and interline connections, and a comprehensive time-table display for all 27 member airlines, dynamically plotted and displayed for users searching and query-ing: http://aaco.innosked.com/ Headquartered in Atlanta, USA, with regional offices in UK and Singapore, Innovata serves over 200 cus-tomers, in 52 countries. Regional Main Contact:Name: Mr. John McAleavy, Regional Account Manager Europe, Africa & Middle EastTelephone: +44 (0)1582635018Fax: +44 (0)1582635001Email: [email protected]: www.innovata-llc.com

Innovata - AACO Partner since 2003

Inmarsat supports ICAO’s commitment to urgent implementation of live flight tracking: Following the conclusion of the International Civil Aviation Organiza-tion’s (ICAO) Second High Level Safety Conference in Montreal, Inmarsat has announced its support of the regulatory body’s recommendations to enhance

aviation safety, saying it is ready to participate in the adoption of a performance-based standard for global tracking of commercial aircraft. Inmarsat welcomes ICAO’s conclusion that countries and indus-try should begin the voluntary implementation of global tracking which provide industry with viable options, as a matter of urgency. ICAO wants to see flight tracking implemented as quickly as possible as part of the proposed Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS). Inmarsat has actively pursued the potential use of available Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Contract (ADS-C) capabilities on board aircraft that support flight tracking activities. ADS-C surveillance has already enabled increased aviation capacity and more efficient use in the oceanic regions. Contracts can be set to respond automatically at predetermined time intervals and to provide additional conformance monitoring capabilities.Inmarsat partners with Australian aviation industry to boost global flight tracking: Inmarsat an-nounced that it is partnering with Airservices Australia and other key aviation industry stakeholders to trial improved flight tracking services on commercial airline flights to and from Australia.The announcement follows a resolution on 6 February by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to adopt a new 15-minute tracking standard for commercial aircraft. ICAO is the United Nations body tasked with developing international civil aviation standards and recommended practices. Inmarsat is working with industry partners, Airservices Australia, Qantas and Virgin Australia in develop-ing the operational concept for the trial. Inmarsat - AACO Partner since 2013

Ingenico Mobile Solutions launches industry’s first mPOS solution en-abling NFC acceptance of Apple Pay, MasterCard contactless and Visa payWave: From the 2015 GSMA Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Ingenico Mobile Solutions unveiled the industry’s first audio-

jack based NFC/contactless mobile card acceptance solution with support for Apple Pay, MasterCard contactless and Visa payWave. Ingenico Mobile Solutions has developed the RP170c that gives small merchants a future-proof solution for contactless payment acceptance by providing support for both magstripe contactless and EMV contactless cards. The RP170c is fully compatible with the Ingenico Mobile Solutions mCommerce platform including their mPOS application, management portals and gateway to instantly accept all of the latest NFC payment methods – including Apple Pay – as well as all Visa and MasterCard contactless cards, whether they are EMV or magstripe. As for any mPOS solutions deployed by Ingenico Mobile Solutions, the RP170c based solution can also be white labeled for merchants or channel partners reselling the solution that want to emphasize their own brand.Additional features of the RP170c include:

• NFC/contactless reader and dual track magnetic stripe reader (MSR) in one unit• Compatible with virtually any iOS or Android device and connects via a 3.5mm standard audio jack• EMV Level 1 contactless certification• Certified for qVSD and MSD (Visa), plus M/Stripe and M/Chip (MasterCard)• Audible buzzer and color LEDs to signal completed contactless transaction• Integrated extended life rechargeable battery• Developer friendly SDK for mobile application integration

Ingenico - AACO Partner since 2015

mailto:zaki%40inst-aero-spatial.org?subject=

http://www.inst-aero-spatial.org

http://www.inst-aero-spatial.org

http://aaco.innosked.com/

mailto:jmcaleavy%40innovata-llc.com?subject=

http://www.innovata-llc.com

http://www.innovata-llc.com/

http://www.inmarsat.com/

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 77

Our Partners News


Assisting passengers with special needs and annual CRO training: Annual Com-plaints Resolution Official (CRO) training is required for carriers to be in compliance with 14 CFR Part 382, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability in Air Travel, in

support of the Air Carrier Access Act.If you haven’t scheduled your 2015 CRO training and need a class to ensure compliance, MedAire contin-ues to offer Air Carrier Access Act Training courses worldwide to assist carriers with compliance to Part 382.To date, more than 100,000 crewmembers have participated in MedAire’s CRO Training. The course is offered in 7 languages. You may also be interested in learning more about CRO Assistance, a 24/7 resource to assist carriers with appropriate and compliant responses to situations involving passengers with disabilities. Whether or not an airline is required to comply with a fairness-in-access regulation, every customer in-teraction with crew members, gate agents, reservation agents, customer service personnel, and baggage handlers affects the overall travel experience and the image & reputation of an airline and airport.Please contact MedAire to learn more about the services available to support your compliance initia-tives, or to schedule a call with a MedAire ACAA CRO expert. Additional information about the courses offered is available on our website here.

Tel: + 65 6330 9534Email: [email protected]/airlines

MedAire - AACO Partner since 2008

Lufthansa Consulting is an international aviation and management consulting company

Since 1988 Lufthansa Consulting, an independent subsidiary of the Lufthansa Aviation Group, has provid-ed services and solutions to the air transportation industry worldwide. Our portfolio and our consulting experts are dedicated to assist aviation specific client groups: airlines, airports and aviation authorities as well as related industries such as ground handling companies, cargo terminal operators, aircraft manu-facturers and financial institutions. Our experts identify improvement potentials quickly and offer customized consulting solutions includ-ing know-how transfer and implementation, applying the diversified experience of the entire Lufthansa Group. Our clients benefit from customized business solutions designed by consultants with a global understanding of the industry and in-depth knowledge of factors which are critical for success. We know the aviation business!Experienced consultants from 17 nationalities work together closely with the client, based on mutual trust, ensuring knowledge transfer and mentoring. Lufthansa Consulting has completed more than 2000 projects worldwide during the past 26 years.Regional Main ContactName: Mr Alexander Manakos, PartnerTelephone: +49 (0)69 696 20853Fax: +49 (0)69 696 20830Email: [email protected]: www.LHConsulting.com

Lufthansa Consulting - AACO Partner since 2010

Kennedys is a growing international law firm with particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution. We have a network of over 1,200 people across the UK and Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The firm’s aviation practice has an exclusive focus on the aviation industry. This enables it to bring a depth and

breadth of specific expertise from its team resources which consist of a range of professionals who have worked in multiple areas of the aerospace industry both as private practitioners and in-house counsel. Our driven team of experienced and highly regarded professionals specialise in providing legal solutions to a wide range of clients in the aviation industry. We are able to advise on all aspects of aviation, commercial, regulatory and liability issues. In respect of liability issues, we have lawyers who have significant experience in dealing with major aviation losses and who are recognized as leading figures in the aviation sector. We are involved in handling a wide spectrum of claims ranging from the legal aftermath of major air accidents through to carriage by air issues involving EU regulations, the Warsaw and Montreal convention regimes. Our team has experience of advising in relation to Insurance and Reinsurance policy interpretation and cov-erage issues; we have pursued multiple subrogated claims and, where disputes arise, have conducted nu-merous arbitrations and mediations. Our focus is to provide practical advice to resolve contentious issues. We also have a regulatory team who specialise in advising airlines on the effect of international regulations and compliance in respect of these, including EU regulations and directives; the Chicago Convention togeth-er with IATA and ICAO recommended standards and practices. Our aircraft finance team deliver high quality practical legal advice and our clients include airlines (from major airlines to start ups), private individuals and product manufacturers; we were recently named as one of the world’s top ten law firms in the air-craft finance sector by the leading publication, Air Finance Journal as well as being the winner of specialist aviation team in the Legal 500 UK Awards 2013. Kennedys are here to provide answers, recommendations, strategy and tactics. We deliver these in plain English and it’s what we call Legal advice in black & white.

Kennedys - AACO Partner since 2011

For 80 years, Jeppesen has made it possible for pilots and their passengers to safely and efficiently reach their destinations. Today, this pioneering spirit continues as Jeppesen delivers transformative informa-tion and optimization solutions to improve the efficiency of air and sea operations around the globe. Jeppesen is a Boeing subsidiary and part of the Digital Aviation business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. Boeing offers the industry’s largest portfolio of services, support and solutions, collec-tively known as the Boeing Edge, providing customers a competitive advantage by solving real operation-al problems, enabling better decisions, maximizing efficiency and improving environmental performance – intelligent information solutions across the entire aviation ecosystem.For more information, please contact us at: Jeppesen GmbH, Frankfurter Strasse 233, 63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany Telephone: +49 6102 50 8214, Fax: +49 6102 508121Regional Main ContactName: Mr. Torsten Domrös, Senior Manager, Navigation Services and Technical Development Commer-cial & Military AviationTelephone: +49 6102 50 8180Fax: +49 6102 50 8121Email: [email protected]: www.jeppesen.com

Jeppesen - AACO Partner since 2008

http://www.medaire.com/solutions/airlines/solutions/passengers-with-disabilities/complaints-resolution-officials

mailto:info-asiapacific%40medaire.com?subject=

http://www.medaire.com/airlines

http://www.MedAire.com

mailto:Alexander.Manakos%40lhconsulting.com?subject=

http://www.LHConsulting.com

http://www.LHConsulting.com

http://www.kennedys-law.com

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http://www.jeppesen.com

http://www.jeppesen.com

Our Partners News


OAG Punctuality League 2014The OAG Punctuality League 2014 is now available and draws on OAG Flight Status data to create tables of the best airlines and airports for on-time performance* in 2014. There are eight airline categories covered in the report, including Airlines based in the Middle East and Africa. Regional airlines have been defined as those airlines whose operations are entirely within the IATA geographic region that the airline is based in. They must also have operated a mini-

mum of 18,000 scheduled flights in 2014. To qualify for inclusion in the OAG Punctuality League the OAG database must have received data for at least 80% of scheduled flights operated by an airline.Our Flight Status database holds nearly 10 years of historic data and we now capture over 93% of all scheduled airline operations across the globe on a daily basis. With the most comprehensive combina-tion of flight status and schedules data, the insight OAG can provide is being used by all elements of the aviation community to better service market needs.Find out where you and your competitor airlines rank today.Download the OAG Punctuality League 2014 at www.oag.com/punctuality-league-2014*On-time performance – also referred to as OTP. ‘On-time’ is defined as departures and arrivals that take place within 15 minutes of schedule for airports. For airlines, ‘on-time’ is

defined as arrivals that take place within 15 minutes of schedule.

OAG - AACO Partner since 2002

NAHCO engages Civil Defence to secure terminal: Three months after clearing agents at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, were engaged in a free-for all with Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, officers at the bulk breaking area of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO Plc, the

company has engaged the services of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.The move became necessary to shore up security at the nation’s foremost airport.It would be recalled that fracas between the two organisations led to closure of the cargo terminal for about two weeks by the Federal Government and eventual redeployment of the Customs Area Com-mander at the airport, Taju Olanrewaju.The Head of Corporate Services at NAHCO Aviance, Mr. Bashir Gulma, told journalists in Lagos that armed operatives of the NSCDC had since last month taken up positions in various sections of the termi-nal. Mr. Gulma said the officers have the responsibility of further enhancing security at the terminal.He said the operatives, who are about 25 in number, would complement other security arrangements already put in place by the ground handler, who also has a subsisting Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Nigeria Air Force. He emphasised that the ground-handling company would do all it takes to ensure the terminal is sanitised in line with the stakeholders agreement of December 2014, while unscrupulous elements are shown the way out. Mr. Gulma explained that the Civil Defence operatives would be confined only to NAHCO’s operational areas, pointing out that the entrance to gate of the ter-minal called Hajj Camp is not among the areas to be protected by the operatives.He said the company had provided two new Hilux vehicles, for NSCDC’s use as patrol vehicles. He further informed that the company in conjunction with Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, was working on the On Duty Card, ODC, for the operatives so as to grant them access to the tarmac.

nachco aviance - AACO Partner since 2014Integrated engine leasing - Customized solutions by MTU: With today’s aviation market growing at a rapid pace, aircraft operators are facing increased cost and time pressures in order to stay competitive. Airlines therefore require a smooth and uninterrupted operation of their fleets. To realize this, flexible and affordable spare

engine solutions which promptly cover scheduled and unscheduled maintenance events are a key aspect.In pursuit of ever greater competitiveness and operating efficiency, more and more operators are choos-ing to free themselves from outright spare engine ownership in favor of leasing options. Supporting this trend, MTU Maintenance has expanded its existing lease business and founded MTU Maintenance Lease Services B.V., a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation based in Japan. With the aim of significantly growing its own spare engine pool, MTU has set out to respond more comprehen-sively to the individual needs of its increasing MRO and third-party customer base. During its 35-year history, MTU Maintenance has gathered extensive expertise in the engine MRO busi-ness. With its aim to provide customers with all-round, carefree service packages, engine leasing has become an integral part of MTU’s business model. The company has created a range of modularly flex-ible lease options catered to the specific needs of operators and engine owners. Ranging from short-term leasing and engine pooling, through stand-by arrangements up to sale and lease-back solutions, MTU provides the right solution for its customers’ requirements.Engine lease customers benefit from MTU’s policy of customer proximity: The com-pany’s engines are stored around the globe, which ensures a fast delivery and re-duces precious downtime. Whenever needed, customers may take advantage of MTU’s excellent engineering capabilities as well as additional services, among others end of lease services, logistical support, housekeeping solutions as well as main-tenance services, LRU management or engine trend monitoring. MTU covers its customers’ individual needs. MTU - AACO Partner since 2013

Mercator provides business technology solutions and services to the global airline industry. Our value proposition to our customers is a compelling one: reduce costs, improve operational processes

and ultimately achieve the objectives of our valued customers. Our mission is to consistently serve our airline customers to the highest possible standards, and so establish Mercator as the aviation IT solutions provider of choice – trusted and respected by airlines around the world. The result of this customer-cen-tric approach is a pedigree customer base spread across 140 airlines in five continents. Mercator’s solutions cover four key areas of service excellence: reservation and bookings manage-ment (PSS) systems; cargo operations management systems; passenger and cargo revenue accounting systems; and customer loyalty management systems. For example, our end-to-end cargo and logistics management system, SkyChain, allows airlines to transform the way they manage their cargo operations, increasing revenues, reliability and overall performance. Our clients span the globe and include award-winning carriers, hybrid, low-cost and regional airlines. Aviation is our core business, and as such the needs of our aviation customers has always driven our technology. Our focused aim is to develop products which help airlines reduce costs, streamline process-es and increase productivity – enabling our customers to deliver on their promises.

Regional Main ContactName: Mrs. Michele DrummondPosition: Head of MarketingEmail: [email protected]: www.mercator.com

mercator - AACO Partner since 2003

http://www.oag.com/punctuality-league-2014

http://www.oag.com/

http://www.nahcoaviance.com/

http://www.oag.com/punctuality-league-2014

http://www.mtu.de

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http://www.mercator.com/

Our Partners News


Rockwell Collins expands Middle East presence with new office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Rockwell Collins has opened a new business office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a key growth market for the company.

The announcement was made at IDEX 2015, the Middle East’s premier defense exhibition, in February.The new office will help serve existing alliances and customers that Rockwell Collins has in Saudi Arabia. The company also intends to build new relationships and offerings for the Saudi Arabian government, airlines, business aviation, airports and critical infrastructure.The office in Riyadh will be a part of Rockwell Collins’ Middle East operations. Other offices serving the region include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Cairo.Rockwell Collins to produce SATCOM terminals for Iridium CertusSM broadband: Rockwell Collins has entered into an agreement with Iridium Communications Inc. to be a value-added manufacturer (VAM) for Iridium CertusSM broadband terminals. As a VAM, Rockwell Collins will design and manufacture the terminals, which will enable users to utilize Iridium Certus, the voice and data service enabled by the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation.Rockwell Collins delivers flexible, highly reliable, cost-effective connectivity solutions for airlines and business aircraft around the globe. These solutions include safety services as well as value-added appli-cations that optimize and expand capabilities for aircraft operators and passengers.The first launch of Iridium NEXT satellites is scheduled in October 2015.

Rockwell Collins - AACO Partner since 2002

Established in 2006, Quali-audit is an Audit Organization (AO) officially accred-ited by IATA to conduct IOSA audit (IATA Operational Safety Audit), ISAGO audits (IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations) and Endorsed Training Organization

(ETO) to train IOSA auditors. Quali-audit is an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of Air France group, with principal offices at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (France) and additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). We offer a complete range of services including safety and opera-tional audits, training and operational assistance in the fields of air operations. We are committed to assist airlines in achieving a higher level of safety, security and quality.The Quali-audit team includes 56 highly experienced professionals with multi-cultural background and experience. Our teams of auditors / instructors have an average experience of 30 years in aviation. Many of our auditors were founding members of the IOSA Task Forces that created the IOSA standards and several continue to be actively engaged in the continued evolution of IOSA.Our services include: IOSA Audit, Gap analysis, Preparation, Follow-up; ISAGO Audit, Gap analysis, Prepa-ration, Follow-up; Operational Safety Audit and Evaluation; US-Department of Defense (DoD) Audit; Line Operations Safety Audit expanded (LOSAe); Other audits including against EASA, FAA, ICAO scope; IOSA Auditor Training (IAT); IOSA Familiarization Training; Quality Auditor Training; SAFA Training; Airline Operational Management Training; Safety Management System (SMS) (Training, Audit, Implementation); Human Factor and CRM Training; Dangerous Goods Training; and Security (SEMS) Training.We are pleased to offer our services to AACO members and we thank the airline members who already have chosen to work with Quali-audit. Presently we have already offered our services to the following AACO members: Saudia, Yemen Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Middle East Airlines, Air Algérie, Tunisair, Jor-dan Aviation, Oman Air, Afriqiyah Airways, Libyan Airlines and Nouvelair with excellent feedback.

Quali-audit - AACO Partner since 2008

Optiontown - AACO Partner since 2011

Optiontown is an innovator in the realm of travel options. With our pat-ented MIT Technology airlines can generate up to 5-7 % more revenue without cash investment or IT development. Our Post Sale Ancillary

Revenue algorithms sell dynamic travel options to customers after ticket purchase. It generates incremen-tal revenues for airlines and enhances customers travel experience - a win-win for all. Our robust Plug-n-play model allows to launch a trial in 4 weeks with NO Cash Investment, NO IT development and minimal resource requirement for the airline. As there is NO cost involved to the airline, the revenue flows straight to their bottom line. Our ground breaking ancillary revenue solutions have already generated more than 1% of revenues of our partner airlines. For one of our airline partners, we generated USD 2 in incremen-tal “profit” per passenger boarded. Optiontown offers brand-new, customized travel options; addresses constantly changing travel needs and rewards advantageous travel purchase behaviors. Our Upgrade Travel Option (UTo), Empty Seat option (ESo), Flexibility Reward option (FRo), Multiple Booking Option (MBo) and Preferred Flight Option (PFo) are very popular products in the suite of travel products being capitalized by airlines. Optiontown’s latest innovation is the revolutionary “Flight Pass Option” that helps to convert customers into Subscribers, generating Perpetual Revenue Streams and Perpetual Customer Loyalty. The Flight Pass Option brings a paradigm shift in selling a dynamic booklet of flight coupons for multiple trips, yet still highly customizable to suit the needs of different customer segments (leisure, SME, corporate etc.). We believe, this will bring a revolution in aviation sales by enabling airlines to gain market share and competitive advantage. With these innovative ancillary travel products offered by Optiontown, travel industry can improve their business performance by generating incremental revenues, enhancing customer satisfaction, increasing load factor and decreasing operational costs. Optiontown is an innova-tor in the realm of travel options. Our technology has been developed following extensive research at the Center of Transportation Studies, MIT Boston.

13 million passengers used OnAir’s mobile phone service in 2014: SITA OnAir is celebrating another successful year with 13 million people taking advantage of Mobile OnAir in 2014. The inflight mobile phone service, Mobile OnAir is now flying on 15 airlines worldwide. Over 2014, 37% of passengers flying OnAir-

equipped aircraft connected to the inflight network.The demand for mobile connectivity has never been higher, with 80% of passengers carrying smart-phones. In 2014, mobile data was the most popular service, used by 65% of the passengers who con-nected to OnAir’s onboard mobile network; mobile data includes email, social media updates and surfing the Internet. Text messaging accounted for 31% of usage and phone calls made up 21%. Many passen-gers use Mobile OnAir for all three activities, as people do on the ground. Over the coming years, mobile data usage will continue to grow, driven by smartphone penetration. Voice also remains an important service, especially for business passengers.There are some surprising regional differences. Standout examples include 58% of Egyptian users choos-ing to make phone calls, 82% of passengers from the Philippines using text messaging, and 84% of UK users sending emails over Mobile OnAir.Mobile OnAir usage levels are particularly high because SITA OnAir partners with mobile phone opera-tors across the world to provide the very best deals. The resulting lower prices are made very clear by the phone companies, encouraging people to use the service.Mobile OnAir is also highly convenient, which further stimulates usage. As with international roaming, the cost is included in passengers’ regular mobile phone bills, so there is no need to enter credit card details. SITA OnAir has over 375 roaming agreements, covering 2.6 million mobile phone subscribers.

OnAir - AACO Partner since 2009

http://www.rockwellcollins.com/arinc

http://www.quali-audit.aero/

http://www.optiontown.com

http://www.onair.aero

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 83

Virgin America, ranked the Top Domestic Airline seven years in a row by readers of Travel + Leisure magazine, is the first carrier to deploy Sabre’s Customer Data Hub, Customer Experience Manager, and Dynamic Retailer in combination.“We wanted technology that would help us better understand our guests’ needs, focus on their indi-vidual priorities, and create an experience they can’t get with any other airline,” said Mr. David Cush, President and Chief Executive Officer of Virgin America. “These new solutions give us invaluable insights into our guests to create tailored experiences that drive loyalty, and support our mission to make flying good again.”In a Sabre survey of airline executives, nearly all – 97%– indicated they would be making investments in technology to improve the customer experience. IBM did a study modeling the top-20 airlines’ invest-ments in multi-channel sales and services. The study predicted that a large carrier investing USD 34 mil-lion in a customer experience project would recoup that investment in just 16 months. After five years, the total benefit is an estimated USD 582 million.These solutions are designed to bridge the gap between passenger perceptions of an airline’s customer service delivery and the efforts of that airline to create a differentiated customer experience. That divide was highlighted in a survey commissioned by Sabre in which 81% of airline executives said they believe airline customer experience has improved, while 66% of travelers said they believe airline experience has been unchanged or gotten worse.“Airline customers today expect more and more from carriers, and Sabre has identified ways airlines can improve the customer experience using established technologies that are already working in other service industries,” said Mr. Hugh Jones, President of Sabre Airline Solutions. “Sabre’s data-driven per-sonalization vision further enhances reservations and airline retailing systems, giving airlines the ability to understand their customers at an individual level and deliver personalized products and services that customers most value.”Sabre’s personalization solutions allow airlines to identify their highest-value customers, and target those travelers with offers based on their past travel habits.“Our new customer experience solutions are designed to optimize incremental revenue, reduce acquisi-tion and service costs through long-term customer loyalty, automate a consistent customer experience, and differentiate an airline’s brand from the many options from which travelers can choose,” said Mr. Jones. “Using Sabre technology, an airline can create that truly personalized, dynamic customer experi-ence, without the customer even asking.”

Sabre appoints Mr. Wade Jones Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for Travel Network business: Sabre Corporation has named Mr. Wade Jones Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for Sabre Travel NetworkMr. Jones joins Sabre from Deem, a San Francisco-based technology company that integrates travel expense and spend management solutions via the cloud. During his tenure at Deem, he led product development, marketing, content sourcing and distribution, and operations for its Syndicated Commerce business. Additionally Jones spent more than 10 years with Barclaycard, a company that provides cus-tomized, co-branded credit card programs for other institutions. Jones previously worked in Brand Man-agement at Procter & Gamble, Pinnacle Brands, and The Upper Deck Company. He received a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University and a master of business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Sabre - AACO Partner since 2002

Our Partners News


Sabre develops first virtual payment solution in Brazil for corporate travel: Sabre Corporation together with payment services partner Conferma, announced the upcoming release of Sabre Virtual Payments, a software solution enhanced with customized capabilities and built with the most secure payment card technology available in Brazil.The initial launch, planned for early April, will support hotel bookings and is designed to support an increasingly complex segment within corporate travel programs: solving the need to manually reconcile bookings against payment by fully automating this process, thus resulting in substantial efficiency and cost savings for travel management companies. Available for GetThere customers, Sabre’s software solu-tion also enables transactions to be processed in Brazilian Reais, thereby avoiding exchange fees that would otherwise be charged to cards issued in foreign currencies.Sabre Virtual Payments is a seamless form of payment that allows agencies, TMCs and corporations to deploy single use virtual credit and prepaid card numbers, securely created at the time they shop and book for hotels both online and offline. The unique virtual card number provides stronger fraud protec-tion and is PCI compliant, while also securing control on the exact charged amount of any single trans-action. As featured at the 10th LACTE annual conference in Sao Paulo this week, Mastercard is the first partner to provide the solution. In addition to increasing travel policy compliance, improving reconciling processes, and providing robust reporting capabilities, agencies will benefit from better data integration and provide their corporate customers positive ROI on travel spend.“While corporate travel remains an important investment to secure business and expand enterprise operations overseas, related payments continuously get exposed to difficult manual reconciliation and accounting processes,” said Mr. Yannis Karmis, Vice President of Sabre’s corporate solutions. “We are pleased to partner with renowned bank and payments entities to offer an innovative solution that accel-erates payment reconciling operations and real-time reporting of travel spend.”The virtual technology, developed specifically for payments in the travel industry, also means expanded business opportunities for hoteliers, as rates and services will be available in a secure booking environ-ment.Sabre and Conferma will continue their work to make the solution available in other countries across Latin America in the coming months.

Sabre launches three new, data-driven personalization solutions, including dynamic travel offers, to revitalize airline operations: Sabre announced the launch of three new, powerful data-driven, person-alization solutions, further solidifying the company’s role as a leader in shaping the future of the airline industry.The three new solutions, Sabre’s Customer Data Hub and Customer Experience Manager, and industry first, Dynamic Retailer, source insights on customers from multiple touch points and then use that data to create personalized, meaningful engagements with travelers.Dynamic Retailer promotes ancillary growth by dynamically creating flight and ancillary offers using personalized customer insights to generate incremental revenue. It also enables an airline to identify and offer the most relevant services and product bundles to travelers.

http://www.sabreairlinesolutions.com/

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 85

Our Partners News


WHY WE DO WHAT WE DOWe believe expert support makes a difference. That is why our teams blend former industry executives, top-tier consultants and seasoned investment

bankers. We believe designing projects with change in mind allows our clients to navigate towards improved re-sults faster, and make them more sustainable. That is why we prefer to work onsite with our clients and focus on sharing our expertise to build internal competence and embed new ways of doing things.We believe strong business intelligence capabilities enable feedback loops that allow our clients to con-tinually learn and innovate. That is why we always respect and use the data at hand. We have developed a suite of software tools considered the best globally for in-depth analysis and supporting rapid decision making. We believe in partnering and sharing risk with our clients, combining their unique perspective with our broad experience. That is why since 1995 we completed over 1,000 client engagements globally includ-ing advising on fleet orders valued at >USD 250B (list price) and serving as restructuring advisor for 10 of the largest 15 airline turnarounds.And we believe there is still huge untapped potential in this industry. That is why we love to work with clients to help them confront big challenges and experience the feeling that comes with big wins.THAT IS WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO. THAT IS WHY OUR CLIENTS CHOOSE US.Regional Main ContactName: Mr. Jonathan Sullivan, Managing Director, EMEATelephone: +44 7766196087 Fax: +44 2081660301Email: [email protected]

Shell Aviation expands Technical Services portfolio: Shell Aviation an-nounced that it has expanded its Technical Services Agreements (TSA) portfolio, achieving a 19% growth on the total number of its customers in 2014*. These customers are currently located in 41 countries, ranging

from Southeast Asia, Africa & the Middle East to Australia and the Americas. The company offers airports, airlines and facility operators a suite of tools to enhance safety and operational standards through its TSA.As part of Shell Aviation Technical Support Agreements, customers receive:

• Technical and operational support• Jet fuel quality assistance; aviation fuel product quality systems, interpretation of fuel certification data

and management of product quality incidents• Training and inspection programmes• Access to experts and best practices through the TSA portal

Leveraging its extensive experience in this area, Shell Aviation also provides Engineering Consultancy[1] as an additional service, which focuses on designing and building facilities that deliver performance and safety levels in line with industry standards. The Shell Aviation TSA consultancy teams consist of scientists and engineers, who are subject matter experts in fuel product quality management, filtration equipment, engi-neering, and operations. TSA customers can learn from the best practices adopted by Shell Aviation opera-tions team, who gain their expertise from rigorous training programmes, stringent audits and inspection policies. Shell Aviation also contributes its expertise to industry bodies, which set safety and operational standards, including the Joint Inspection Group (JIG), Product Quality Committee and the Energy Institute. * From the beginning of 2014 until the end of 2014.[1] Examples of such services include Master Planning, Design and Feasibility studies, and asset evaluation and integrity reviews.

Seabury - AACO Partner since 2008

Shell Aviation- AACO Partner since 2002

SITA technology transforms Egypt Hurghada Airport: Hurghada Internation-al Airport is transforming the passenger experience at its new terminal with airport solutions from air transport IT specialist, SITA. The airport is using SITA’s passenger processing platform, baggage management and airport op-

erations systems to enhance the passenger experience with new self-service options, the latest baggage management solutions and shorter queues.The new solutions are also helping the airport improve operational efficiency by integrating airport sys-tems and providing a single control point for airport operations.The ‘Future is Personal’ in air travel: Are passengers, airports and airlines aligned?: The ‘connected passenger’ has become a reality, with 97% of airline passengers carrying at least one personal electronic device. But global usage rates indicate passengers have been slow to adopt new airline and airport mo-bile services when traveling. Deeper analysis however, shows that some industry players are bucking the trend and achieving high levels of usage. This is according to The Future is Personal, the latest industry report from SITA, the leading global IT provider to the air transport industry.SITA’s industry insights are based on in-depth research directly with more than 6,000 passengers; carried out at 106 airports across the world which handled 2.35 billion passengers last year and with airlines that together carried more than half the world’s passenger traffic. The research shows airlines have made significant investments in mobile services over the past four years as smartphone adoption surged and the majority now enable passengers to buy tickets, check-in and access flight information via smart-phone apps. Meanwhile half of the worlds’ airports also provide flight information via apps.For further details download SITA’s full report - The Future is Personal.

SITA - AACO Partner since 2008

Virgin America signs for Travelport Rich Content and Branding: Travelport an-nounced Virgin America has signed up for the Travelport Rich Content and Brand-ing solution. Virgin America becomes the latest airline to commit to Travelport

Rich Content and Branding which allows airlines to market and retail their products more effectively by controlling how their product is visually presented and described to travel agents. It is designed to enable partner airlines and other travel content suppliers to use more sophisticated retailing techniques in order to drive sales of core products as well as ancillaries.Travelport announces new multi-year full content agreement with LATAM Airlines Group: Travelport an-nounced a new, multi-year full content agreement with LATAM Airlines Group. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is the new name given to LAN Airlines S.A. as a result of its association with TAM S.A., two of Latin Ameri-ca’s leading airlines with service within Latin America and to cities around the world. The new agreement will become effective 1 March 2015. Under terms of the agreement, Travelport will distribute LAN and TAM Full Content fares and availability information to Travelport-connected users globally. In addition, LAN and TAM have agreed to participate in Travelport Rich Content and Branding. Travelport Rich Content and Branding, a key component of the Travelport Merchandising Platform, allows airlines to market and retail their products more effectively by controlling how their product is visually presented and described to travel agents. It is designed to enable partner airlines and other travel content suppliers to use more sophisticated retailing techniques in order to drive sales of core products as well as ancillaries.Travelport becomes the first to offer a new solution for airport express services: Travelport has an-nounced a first of its kind solution which allows airport express services to be offered to travel agency customers using a plugin on Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform. The innovative new plugin has been developed by a UK-based company Developer Connections Ltd, which is part of Travelport’s Developer Network. Travelport - AACO Partner since 2000

mailto:jsullivan%40seaburygroup.com?subject=

http://eu.vocuspr.com/Tracking.aspx%3FData%3DHHL%253d8-6885-%253eLCE89074%253f%2526SDG%253c%253a0%253c2%26RE%3DMC%26RI%3D4333292%26Preview%3DFalse%26DistributionActionID%3D70402%26Action%3DFollow%2BLink

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http://www.sita.aero/

http://www.travelport.com

http://www.seaburygroup.com/

http://www.shell.com/

Our Partners News


Unisys wins IT services contracts under the European Commission’s largest ever framework contract: Unisys Corporation announced that its Belgian sub-sidiary was awarded contracts in November 2014 under the ESP-DESIS (Exter-nal Service Provision for Development, Studies and Support for Information

Systems) III framework contract. This framework contract is the largest ever awarded by the European Commission. Under the terms of the contracts, Unisys Belgium and its partners will deliver IT support and services to more than 40,000 civil servants for applications, architecture, information management, web content, data warehousing, business intelligence and geographical information systems. The con-sortiums were selected for their ability to provide the European Commission with a strategic approach to sourcing, service delivery and end-to-end support for its IT requirements.The overall framework contract was awarded in four lots, with each lot focused on providing a different category of IT services. Unisys Belgium is to lead two consortiums: one for project management, analyt-ics and consultancy services and another to support the functional and business needs of the European Commission. Unisys is also a participant in a Trasys Group-led consortium to deliver development re-quirements for environments including Oracle, Java and Microsoft SharePoint. Unisys did not compete for the fourth lot. According to the European Commission, the total value of the three lots in which Uni-sys teams will be providing services is more than €800 million. The projected revenue for Unisys under the framework is estimated at around €90 million over the four year term.The consortiums will support all of the European Commission’s operations and can scale to support new initiatives and technology requirements for any additional sites in the region. Initially, around 160 Unisys staff will be deployed at European Commission locations in Brussels, Luxembourg and Ispra in Italy. The consortiums will mobilize more than 1,850 IT professionals to deliver support and services across Eu-rope. Unisys - AACO Partner since 2014


Aviation industry is under-prepared to deal with cyber risk notes Willis ex-pert: The aviation industry is behind the curve in terms of its response and readiness to the insidious threat posed by cyber criminality whether from criminals, terrorists, nation states or hackers, according to Mr. Peter Armstrong,

Head of Cyber Strategy for Willis Group Holdings Speaking at the Willis-IATA-AAPA Aviation Insurance Conference in Hong Kong on 4 March, Mr. Armstrong explained that the aviation industry’s under-preparedness is noteworthy in a sector that abhors uncer-tainty and works tirelessly to eradicate it. He added that the recent launch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) cyber security framework is a good start, supported by the Interna-tional Air Transport Association (IATA) aviation cyber security tool kit. However, he warned that regulators, manufacturers and operators are only now waking up to the perva-sive nature of cyber threats. “We remain concerned that cyber risk is not viewed as a significant enabler, amplifier or accelerator of existing risk in the portfolio as well as discrete cyber risk posed for example through use of Cloud technologies. This is a Board Room issue representing a sophisticated challenge to sophisticated organisations.” said Mr. Armstrong. The umbrella term cyber-risk refers to many interrelated human, governance and technological issues, and is an expression of the impact that cyber vulnerabilities have upon the portfolio of risks that a busi-ness faces ranging from data protection, business interruption, physical damage, or the inability to trade – for example under the growing threat of cyber extortion.“The aviation sector is particularly vulnerable to aggregated risk consequent upon cyber vulnerabilities because there is such heavy reliance upon digital capability and the very high degree of integration in a very sophisticated supply chain. Vulnerability and weakness in any part of the supply chain can and does have significant impact on the safety and effectiveness of the whole.” noted Mr. Armstrong.

Willis - AACO Partner since 2014

http://www.unisys.com/industries/transportation

http://www.unisys.com/industries/transportation

AACO &RTCCALENDARS

AACO & RTC Calendars


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McGill - Beyond Training: Return on Investment in

Training / Amman

AACO Amadeus Steering Board Meeting / Doha

FDSTF Meeting / Dubai

Vendor’s Audit Meeting / Dubai

Joint Purchasing of Consumables Delivery Team Meeting / Dubai

AVSEC Advisory Group Meeting

/ Doha

Coaching & Mentoring / Amman

Aviation Security for Airlines (Ground Services) / Tunisia

Airline Leading Practices & Cost Reduction / Tunisia

Negotiation Skills / Abu Dhabi

Executive Leadership Professional Certificate / Cairo

SAFA Essentials / Amman Effective delega-tion skills / Cairo

OUR MEMBERAIRLINES &INDUSTRY PARTNERS

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 95

AACO INDUSTRY PARTNERSOur Member Airlines, & Industry Partners


AACO member airlines were established in the following sequence:AACO MEMBER AIRLINES

1. Egypt Air (1932) 2. Iraqi Airways (1945)3. Middle East Airlines (1945)4. Saudia (1945)5. Syrian Arab Airlines (1946)6. Sudan Airways (1946)7. Tunis Air (1948)8. Gulf Air (1950)9. Air Algerie (1953)10. Kuwait Airways (1954)11. Royal Air Maroc (1957)12. Yemen Airways (1962)13. Royal Jordanian (1963)14. Libyan Airlines (1964)15. Emirates (1985)16. Nouvelair (1989)17. Oman Air (1993)18. Qatar Airways (1995)19. Palestinian Airways (1995)20. Tassili Airlines (1997)21. Jordan Aviation (2000)22. Afriqiyah Airways (2001)23. Etihad Airways (2003)24. Air Arabia (2003)25. Air Cairo (2003)26. flynas (2006)27. Nile Air (2006)28. Rotana Jet Aviation (2010)29. flydubai (2008)30. Air Go Egypt (2010)

Issue 96 - Mar 2015 97

About AACO: The Arab Air Carriers Organization “AACO”, established in 1965 within the framework of the Arab League of States, is the Regional Association of the Arab Airlines who have their homebase in countries members of the Arab League.

AACO’s Vision is to stand out globally as THE association that serves with dedi-cation the Arab airlines and be instrumental in dealing with an evolving avia-tion industry.

AACO’s Mission is to serve the Arab airlines, represent their common interests and facilitate, in a manner consistent with all applicable competition and other laws their cooperation so as to improve their operational efficiencies and bet-ter serve the travelling public.

AACO’s Objectives:• To support the Arab airlines’ quest for highest safety and security stan-

dards.• To support the Arab airlines’ quest for developing their environmental poli-

cies for processes in harmony with the environment. • To actively contribute in the development of human resources.• To interact with the regulatory bodies to support and protect the interests

of the Arab airlines.• To launch joint projects between member airlines with the objective of

achieving efficiencies that will lower their costs in a manner consistent with all applicable competition and other laws and that enhances the members’ best practices.

• To provide forums for members and for industry partners to enhance the knowledge base.

• To reflect the positive image of The Arab Airlines Globally.

For any comments or suggestions, please e-mail:Mrs. Manal Fares

Senior Manager - Industry [email protected]

[email protected]

Mr. Rashad KarakySenior Manager - Economics, IT & Technical

[email protected]

85 Anis Nsouli St., VerdunP.O.Box: 13-5468

2044-1408 Beirut– LebanonPhone: 00961-1-861297/8/9

Fax: 00961-1-863168


References:The news included in this bulletin are collected from various sources as fol-lows:AACO ATW Online Arabian AerospaceIATA Innovata Arab NewsICAO GreenAir Online MENAFNEU institutions AMEInfo Arabian BusinessIndustry press releases Airports’ websites Gulf News Khaleej Times ch-aviation Others... Where the news item was not based on various sources, AACO clearly men-tions the source.When the source is AACO, other parties may publish the information provided by AACO, but with reference to the source.

Definitions:1. Geographical Areas:Americas: Includes North, Central, and South American countries.Mid Asia: Includes the following countries: Bangladesh, India, Iran, Afghani-stan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives.Australasia: Includes the following countries: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Tai-wan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Australia.Europe: Includes the European countries.Arab World: Includes the Arab countries.Sub-Saharan Africa: Includes the African countries except Arab countries in North Africa which are: Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

2. Abbreviations:RPK: Revenue Passenger KilometerASK: Available Seat Kilometer.PLF: Passenger Load Factor.RTK: Revenue Tonnes Kilometer.ATK: Available Tonnes Kilometer.WLF: Weight Load Factor.

3. All statistics in this bulletin represent the absolute number of passengers unless mentioned otherwise.

4. Connotations:To and From the Arab world: indicates traffic between the Arab world and other world regions.Within the Arab world: indicates traffic within the Arab world regionTo, From, and Within the Arab world: indicates the sum of the above

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issue 96 mar 2015 official monthly bulletin of aacobetween tabuk and cairo starting from 30 march...

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