Ali Alnaqbi, founding chairman of the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA), believes the region’s business aviation sector has a lot to look forward to. “These are exciting times, with charter picking up,” especially for head of state and government use. “We are seeing high-single figure growth.”
As for the association itself, he said MEBAA is focused on “opening new markets, for example Tunisia and Egypt,” following the recent successes of MEBAA Morocco, held in Marrakesh on September 11, and MEBAA Conference Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on October 3. The next MEBAA Morocco in Marrakesh will be held September 17 to 18, 2019, but for next year Alnaqbi is forging ahead with a new event in Tunisia in late March 2018; Amman, Jordan, in late April 2018; and Bahrain later in the year.
Thus, Alnaqbi’s main focus in 2018 will be speaking with various countries at a high level to enhance their understanding of business aviation. Many countries have only a few aircraft, and these are usually registered abroad, he noted. “We want them to plan for business aviation to be part of economic growth—we’ll explain to them what Dubai was like 15 years ago. It started with people being shy to talk about business aviation, to a situation where we lead.”
There are countries that still need to be reached, he said. “Like Yemen, Libya and Iraq. They are on our radar, but it’ll take some time. We will choose the right time, but we are continuously spreading awareness of the importance of business aviation as a business tool, not just for high-net-worth individuals.”
In addition, MEBAA is focused on “fighting the gray charter market in Saudi Arabia”—a theme of last week’s conference in Jeddah. “We have a commitment from GACA [the Saudi civil aviation authority] to support our activities.”
In Marrakesh, the association launched MEBAA Insurance, taking its Preferential Aviation Insurance Scheme and adding cover for premises, medical, cyber systems and aircraft, Alnaqbi said. He is hopeful this can be expanded eventually to other business aviation associations through IBAC. Earlier this year, Alnaqbi was also elected vice-chairman of the IBAC governing board.
“It’s a big initiative for us—an insurance one-stop-shop,” he said. “And you can even use your own insurance company, but there is one lead underwriter.”
Finally, he noted the importance of humanitarian and other diverse general aviation activities. “We contributed $25,000 to Fly & Feed, a joint initiative of the World Food Program and MEBAA, for the purpose of alleviating pain of people affected by hunger and malnutrition around the world.”