Pharmacist finds the chemistry for success

When young pharmacist Mazen Bissat looked out at the skies over Beirut and day-dreamed of flying he could never have believed that, within ten years, he would own Lebanon’s second airline – the cargo carrier TMA – and control a charter operation with the potential to give the country its first low-cost carrier.

“Aviation is like a hobby to me,” Bissat said. “I am still a pharmacist and own a chain of pharmacies, but aviation is my passion.”

Outside the window of his newly-decorated office on Beirut’s Rafic Hariri Airport there is a newly painted Airbus A300-600 with barely 2600 cycles on the clock being prepared for its weekly flight to Paris CdG.

Trans Mediterranean Airways (TMA) was the second AOC awarded by Lebanon back in the 1950s and, in its heyday, had a fleet of 11 Boeing 707s and two 747s. Ravaged by the effects of the Lebanese civil war, when it had to move operations to Larnaca and Sharjah, and was then the subject of a management buy-out, the airline faltered and finally suspended flying operations and survived only by providing maintenance and engineering services for private owners using the Beirut airfield.

As the company floundered, one of those customers stepped up to rescue the business. That customer was Bissat.

The pharmacist’s dream was to fly. He learned in Beirut and, in 2000, bought his own Piper Cherokee. With friends, he would fly around his country and make occasional vacation flights to Cyprus or the Greek islands. But he listened to others and realised there was a niche market just waiting to be filled.

“If groups of people wanted to go anywhere, they could get a Citation with six seats but that was about it. But if there were nine people or more, they had to go elsewhere,” he explained.

Bissat researched the aviation world, bought a second-hand Metroliner and took the third AOC from the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority under the name of Flying Carpet.

“Business started to develop after the invasion of Iraq and we started to fly to Iraq frequently. People wouldn’t fly there; it was dangerous and nobody was interested. Of course now they are, and because of the regulation on the Middle East Airlines (MEA) monopoly we had to stop. That is an unfair regulation and wouldn’t happen anywhere else in the world. Lebanon is losing a lot from this regulation. MEA is trying to show that this regulation is good for Lebanon and MEA. It is not, it is bad for Lebanon,” Bissat said.

“Whoever wants to fly economy, they are looking for cheapest – not the full service like you would get in business class. Now the low-cost carriers are here. Flydubai has 189 seats and operates two full flights a day. MEA has full business class but that is it.

“Open sky should not be just for in-bound. How many jobs are we losing because of this regulation?”

At the end of 2005, Bissat bought a Boeing 737-200 and began painting it in the Flying Carpet colours. Iraqi Airways came in to lease it.

A year later he bought a second 727-200 and began to replace the Metroliner on the Iraq routes and even opened routes to Stockholm, Berlin and Hanover – places that MEA was not going.

In 2008 Flying Carpet bought a Bombardier CRJ-200 50-seater to supplement the routes with the support of the Mediterranean Bank and changed the airline’s name to Med Airways. Later the same year he bought the cargo carrier and began the restructuring which led to the scrapping of the old fleet, which will be complete by the end of this year.

The Airbus A300-600, formerly with Galaxy in Japan, was leased and flights to CdG began flying in July. TMA is the cargo carrier of Lebanon and so bilaterals are in place. “It is not an easy job to revive TMA but it is not impossible,” said Bissat.

Meanwhile, the Boeing 737-200 type is banned from Lebanon and so the two aircraft in the Med Airways fleet are being sold.

The company has ambitions to begin low-cost operations.

“We applied to fly to Alexandria in Egypt but, because of the MEA monopoly, we were stopped. Ironically, soon afterwards Air Arabia began its flights from Alexandria to here,” said Bissat.

“I want to put TMA back on the map as a leading cargo airline. The old concept will not work but we are going to connect continents.

“We have already applied for traffic rights to Iraq. The transition is on. They are making it difficult for people flying to Iraq. They want people to contact RAS Aviation in the UAE. We cannot contact a third-party as a national carrier and the Lebanese Civil Aviation directorate has sent a letter. A month has passed by without an answer.

“There are so many markets available but I am concentrating on one at a time. We have a logistics company at CdG with cargo for Syria and Lebanon from all over Europe.

“We used to operate to Amsterdam and Milan. Our target is to have four flights a week – two to Paris and one each to Amsterdam and Milan. In this region we will serve the Gulf and some African countries. In the future we will be buying more aircraft.”

Bissat said he is pleased with performance of the Airbus so far but is watching its operating costs. “TMA was always a Boeing company but we took the Airbus because of an opportunity. It is working well. We have no surprises or maintenance issues.”

Maintenance on the TMA and Med Airways fleet is managed by Lufthansa Technik, which has been providing a training programme for the TMA maintenance staff. Lufthansa Consulting is also helped plan the restructuring.

“For Med Airways I don’t see a profitable business from now until 2012. We have had to lay off employees,” explained Bissat. “We had 95 and now have 35. But hopefully we will go back to profitability.

“We will not operate long-haul. We will be operating in the region of two to four-hour flights and then maybe we can go further – the Gulf and Europe. We will not be competing with MEA and I am sure they will not lose business from us.”