Recently in Africa/Middle East Category

After hosting some Chelsea soccer stars yesterday at its World Travel Market stand Etihad has turned to the celebrity world of pop to take care of Miss Dannii Minogue, a pop star and judge of X Factor (UK version) and sister of a certain Kylie.

Poor old Clive Wratten, UK country manager, had to break off selling lots of seats to pose for a few snaps with the lovely Miss Minogue and a replica Formula 1 racing car.

In return for doing a stint at WTM Miss Minogue seems to get seats on Etihad to fly back to her home country of Australia, and in particular her home town of Melbourne. Etihad flies to Melbourne daily from Abu Dhabi.

Driss Benhima, president of Royal Air Maroc, talked to me this morning here at the World Air Transport Forum about the planned privatisation of his carrier. Here is the story published on Air Transport Intelligence around midday.

Morocco ready to privatise Royal Air Maroc in 2009

Moroccan flag carrier Royal Air Maroc is on the blocks to be privatised next year. The country's government listed the carrier among several state-owned companies to be sold off in its recently announced budget bill.

The state has a 96.13% stake in Royal Air Maroc with both Air France and Iberia having small shareholdings, of 2.73% and 0.91% respectively, and the balance held by private investors.

Commenting on the announcement at the World Air Transport Forum in Paris, Driss Benhima, president of Royal Air Maroc, said: "I can't say what the privatisation of Royal Air Maroc will look like exactly as it is a process managed by the government but I understand the identification of a strategic partner is a higher priority compared with achieving a simple financial transaction."

The government's budget bill will be considered by the Moroccan parliament in the coming weeks and is scheduled to be passed by year-end. "The management of Royal Air Maroc will make its best effort to support whatever parliament and the government decide," said Benhima.

The privatisation of Royal Air Maroc is the next step in a major restructuring of the country's air transport policy and industry. Morocco began the process of liberalising its aviation market in 2001 when it signed an Open Skies agreement with the US.

The market began to open to Europe in 2003 when low-cost carriers were allowed on an individual basis. This was followed with an Open Skies deal in 2006 with the European Union opening the market completely.

In the first phase of the privatisation, expected to be completed during 2009, the government will sell around a 20% stake in the airline. A further stake could be sold at a later date and a public listing is envisaged in the second phase of the process in the coming years.

The government is seeking an airline partner for Royal Air Maroc to give the carrier access to larger global networks. The partner should also bring access to one of the global airline alliances.

This year Royal Air Maroc will make a small profit on revenues of some €1.2 billion ($1.5 billion), making it one of the few African carriers to remain in the black.

"Our fundamentals are very good but we need to work with a partner to build our management skills in areas like technology, yield management and pricing, network planning and maintenance," said Benhima.

The carrier has been steadily building its hub operations at Casablanca in recent years with a fleet of 32 Boeing 737s and 767s.

  Fresh from appearing on the cover of the latest issue of Airline Business, Etihad Airways chief executive James Hogan (pictured left) has been named "Aviation CEO of the year" at an awards ceremony held in Dubai.

Hogan was handed the award by ITP chief executive Walid Akawi during the CEO Middle East Awards 2008. For more on his award, see Etihad's press release.

And to read our recent cover interview with James, in which he explains why he believes Etihad's ambitious expansion plans will work despite the current downturn, click here.

I met the chairman of Arik Sir Joseph Arumemi-Johnson and his son Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, the leading lights of this Nigerian carrier, at Farnborough in July, and good value they were too. By that I mean a good story.

At the show they were confirming and upping orders for Boeings, and talking about refining their own fuel to keep costs low. I liked that story.

Now they've ordered the Airbus A340-500, probably one of the most unpopular long-haul aircraft out there at the moment. It has taken over Kingfisher's order for three of the aircraft as it fulfils its long-haul ambitions.

Let's just comment on that deal by saying Arik will have got a good deal and Airbus chief salesman John Leahy can be complimented on his fast footwork to offload some metal that could easily have ended up as whitetails.

How's this for transparency? Saudi low-cost start-up Sama has counted the cost of operating some of its domestic routes and decided it's just not worth it. Why? Well how about the fact that it loses the not unprincely sum of 40,000 Saudi Riyals - some $10,600 - per flight on its services between Damman and Riyadh.

Ouch!

It may seem ironic, being one of the fastest growing airlines in the world with a huge amount of aircraft on order, but Emirates is touting its commitment to protecting the environment.

In a press release, the carrier says it has adopted "a new environmental policy for the Emirates Group, a global staff awareness campaign and internal goals to reduce energy consumption and waste, as well as increase recycing and training".

The programme is entitled Emvironment, which at first I thought was a spelling error but no, it's a good old amalgamation of two words. Catchy. You can read more about the airline's emvironmental commitments here. 

Heavily involved in all this is Emirates vice-president public and environmental affairs Andrew Parker, who says: "From an environmental perspecitve, Emirates has much to be proud of, particularly our advanced fleet and use of technology to minimise our footprint.

"While much of this work has been underway for many years, the new Emvironment programme will provide a strategic underpinning to further improve our environmental performance."

Emirates is not the only airline shouting about its commitment to saving the earth - see our recent feature "Seen to be green" to see what others are doing to try and hammer home this message.

It might seem a harsh question, but one some are asking of the former darling of the Middle East airline world Gulf Air.

This article from the FT is a good run through the issues, and is also notable for having nabbed my colleague and editor of Flight International Murdo Morrison for a quote or two.

His view: "Gulf Air's decline reflects the shift in the centre of gravity of the Gulf towards the Emirates in particular - it seems almost like an anachronism now."

Our own David Kaminski-Morrow, who keeps a close eye on Gulf Air, also talked to its CEO Bjorn Naf not too long ago, where he described the carrier's intention to grow - a must or it will be smothered.

Here's a recent Flightglobal story on Gulf Air's view on alliances,

and one on its fleet plans.

Honestly? I didn't.

So, the news that British Airways is selling its 10.5% share in Air Mauritius was a surprise, mainly because I'd forgotten they even had it.

It's no surprise BA is selling it. Not because of the cash riches it will release - it's only worth £3.2 million - but because it is meaningless and frankly not worth the management hassle. I'd like to know why BA took the stake in the first place (it dates back to 1973). Something about helping a start-up get going I've read.

Airlines tend not to make much PR fuss about asking the airframers for their best offers when preparing an order.

So I note this press release from Nigeria's Bellview Airlines with interest.

It already operates a few Boeing 737s and 767s and wants more - a lot more: narrowbodies, widebodies and 70-seat regional jets.

As the release, which I print in full below, states, the ultimate order could be for up to 58 aircraft.

The Airline Business and Flightglobal team has assembled some remarkable video interviews from this week's International Air Transport Association Annual General Meeting.

You can listen to immediate reaction from the world's largest gathering of airline bosses, with ex-airline CEO himself Peter Davies getting some fantastic interviews with among others:

* Willie Walsh, BA

* Fernando Conte, Iberia,

* Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways

* Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian Airlines.