Africa/Middle East: October 2008 Archives

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.