Opening up the doors of opportunity

Bahrain-based Texel Air has spread its wings as far as Australasia over the past two years.

The cargo specialist now operates four Boeing 737-800 Boeing-Converted Freighters (BCF) from Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin and Perth, plus another from Auckland, New Zealand. It has a further five 737s – two -700 FlexCombis and three -800BCFs – based in Bahrain. Two years ago, the airline operated only four 737s.

The idea for expanding “Down Under” arose during the pandemic, when New Zealander John Chisholm, father of Texel Air’s CEO, George Chisholm, was ‘locked down’ in his home country and saw a gap in the market.

In 2023, Texel dispatched an initial 737-800BCF from Bahrain to fly for the New Zealand Post Office and Freightways – the two organisations are rivals in surface transport, but run a joint venture airline, Parcel Air Express. The Australian aircraft, meanwhile, operate in the livery of Team Global Express, another major package carrier.

“We just saw that we could add value, bringing our learning from the Middle East back to Australasia,” George Chisholm told Arabian Aerospace at the Bahrain International Air Show. Texel’s -800BCFs were a generation younger than the 737 ‘Classics’ flying with local carrier Airwork, with better range and payload capabilities.

Texel has been granted, extended diversion time operations (EDTO), the local equivalent of the US ETOPS regulations, which allow an aircraft to be a certain amount of time away from a diversion airport – 120 minutes in the case of EDTO. This allows Texel’s aircraft to undertake longer overwater sectors to destinations such as the Cocos Islands between Australia and Sri Lanka, and to Chatham Island off New Zealand.

However, despite the expansion, management of most aspects of the Australasian operation is still based in Bahrain.

Texel’s Bahrain-based operations, meanwhile, are heavily used by package operator DHL, which use two Texel aircraft, with a third aircraft used for surge operations in periods such as the busy winter season

More expansion is approaching: Texel aims to have a further three 737s in operation by the end of 2025

Meanwhile, MENA Aerospace is undergoing a major change in its focus, moving away from its cargo airline business to freight forwarding and providing hangar space around the region.

MENA Aerospace and Bahraini real estate developer Infracorp plan to build several maintenance facilities around the Gulf.

The first project will double the size of the company’s existing hangar at Bahrain International Airport, with the expanded facility hopefully operational within the next 24 months, said Infracorp’s head of special projects, Abdulaziz Tawfeeqi.

“The core of our business is to construct [but] this is our first venture into the aviation industry. In the hope of diversifying our portfolio, we came up with a collaboration with MENA Aerospace, who have the technical and operational know-how. We know how to build, they know how to operate.”

After the Bahrain project, the partners will look at Oman: “We see a lot of opportunities there. It’s a market that’s growing quickly,” Tawfeeqi said. Thereafter, the next obvious target is Saudi Arabia, which is rapidly growing its aviation eco-system as part of the Vision 2030 project to diversify the economy.

Managing director of MENA Aerospace, Dr Mohamed Ahmed Juman, said the new project marked a major shift in focus for the Group.

“When I started MENA, it was never supposed to be an airline,” he said.

The company initially held a private jet AOC, but then moved into cargo. However, by the time it got a freight airline AOC, the cargo market was already shrinking back to pre-pandemic proportions and the airline is now sub-optimal in size.

As a result, MENA Cargo Airlines will now dispose of its two 737-300F freighters.

“In addition, we’re focusing on our second pillar, the MRO business. Last year, we did around $15 million of work for third-party airlines.” Now, MENA will focus on developing hangars that will be leased out to MRO suppliers.