Yemenia: A new milestone [Archives:2007/1049/Business & Economy]
By: Sallam M. Jubari
Advertising And Promotion Manager – Yemenia
During the conference of “Exploring the Investment Opportunities In Yemen H.E Mr Khaled Alwazir the Minister of Transportation Announced the project for the start up of a new Domestic Airline.
This airline will be sponsored by Yemenia, the National Airline of Yemen. However it will be a private company and a minimum of 70 percent of the equity in the company will be offered to selected group of private investors.
Yemenia will pull out of most domestic routes and offer these routes to the new domestic airline ” said Captain Abdulkhaliq Al-Qadhi Chairman of Yemeni a Airways “the new airline will fly to all major cities in Yemen at least daily from Sana'a. Also, from Aden there will be five flights a day and to Al-Mukalla there will be four flights a day. This will meet the needs of both business travelers and Yemeni people”
He also said “we will start with 4 modern efficient aircrafts moving to 6 aircrafts in the next year. Besides, the airline will increase the number of aircrafts as required.”
According to him the airline will be a Value Focused Carrier to meet the needs of the Yemeni people. Further, it will be run on the principles of valuing the customer which could be achieved by high utilization of the aircraft and by keeping fares low.
Mr Abdullah Almutareb, the project Director, added that “We want to start as low as YER 5000/ $25 which is currently the cost to travel from Sana'a to Taiz by other transpotation means but the airline is faster & safer. The airline will have new methods of distribution and will use banks, post offices, mobile phone companies, internet etc to be utilized locally and internationally so as to sell its tickets which will be electronic, We intend to fly one million passengers by 2012. at the present time, Yemenia flies 360.000 domestic passengers.”
The new company will be established according to to the Yemeni laws and up to 70% of its shares will be offered to selected group of investors. The company is expected to make profit at the end of the second year of its operation and hence reward its investors by income growth in equity value.
Yemenia has signed an agreement with Sabre Airline Solution, which is a part of The Sabre Group with a capital of US $5.0 billions, to ensure success to this project. “We have more than 300 airline clients.” said Shane Batt, the Managing Partner, “We do 6-8 start up of airlines a year. We are very confident of the success of this project.” he added.
“The early indications of our evaluation and analysis indicate that the airline should be profitable from the start of year 2. A team of Sabre Consultants are based in Yemen and we are sure that the airline will be a huge success.
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