Business aviation grows faster in Africa The study - the first of its kind - was commissioned by the Middle East Business Aviation Association ahead of its first conference in Morocco and conducted by data research consulting company WINGX Advance. North Africa’s MRO market has grown by 30% over the past 5 years, whilst Morocco is the most active market with 50% of all North African aircraft movements year to date 2013. So far this year there have been 7651 departures from North Africa, which represents a 2.5% drop on 2012, although the slowdown reflects a disrupted first quarter during which there was significant political instability. In Q2, activity increased by 1.2%. Across Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia and Tunisia there have been 14,832 business aviation aircraft movements YTD. On current trends, this will increase to 22,750 movements for the full year 2013. In terms of flight operations YTD, private-filed flights have accounted for 33% of activity, charter flights for 53%. Egypt and Morocco lead the way in charter departures, with customers from these two markets on track to generate 9000 sectors in 2013. As a whole, the North African region is estimated to engender at least $200m in charter revenues this year. MEBAA Founder Ali Al Naqbi The research also shed light on business aviation aircraft types being operated in and out of the region. Year to date, heavy jets and turboprops/pistons accounted for 20% and 28% of flight hours, respectively. In the charter market, over 60% of all flight hours were flown by bizliners, ultra long range and heavy jets, underlining a distinct customer preference for large cabin long range aircraft. As ever within any maturing business aviation sector, safety is paramount to the future success of the market. As such, suppliers of MRO services have become an essential fixture in the North African business aviation sector. Figures from the WINGX study show that the regional MRO market has grown by more than 30% over the past five years. The largest markets of which are Morocco, Egypt and Algeria, comprising an 80% share. Ali Al Naqbi, Founder of MEBAA speaking ahead of MEBAC Marrakech said, “As an association which is committed to providing accurate data to the industry, North Africa has always been a region without credible fact based data, until now. MEBAC’s intelligence partner for MEBAC Marrakech, WINGX, has extrapolated sought after insights and data for North Africa. WINGX’s presentation at MEBAC will provide our members an in-depth real-time look into one of the fastest growing regions in the world.” Richard Koe, Managing Director of WINGX went on to say, “From our research, it is clear that the North African region has grown significantly in its importance as a business aviation hub connecting burgeoning economies. We must commend MEBAA on the foresight to request such a study to be conducted on the region and we hope it provides its members and stakeholders with the insights it needs.”
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 21:40:07 +0000
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