AfBAA meets with Morocco's Minister of transportation

In addition to the general meeting, AfBAA attended a meeting with Aziz Rebbah, minister of equipment and transport for the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, to discuss the business aviation landscape in Morocco and to explore AfBAA’s role within the sector.
 
“Through advocating the importance of business aviation as an economic driver to these key stakeholders we can increasingly make government bodies aware of the significance of Business Aviation,” said Tarek Ragheb, chairman of the association. “In this case we were able to demonstrate our committed dynamic approach and received an extremely positive response from the Moroccan authorities who recognise the value of the community in Morocco and further afield on the continent.”

AfBAA will now be a conduit for Moroccan business aviation development as it continues to communicate the key issues on behalf of its members to the authorities; and work in conjunction with them to improve the climate for Moroccan business aviation.

The Moroccan-based meeting, which was arranged and hosted by one of AfBAA’s founding members private jet operator Dalia Air, also took the opportunity to discuss the association’s strategic plan for the year. Amongst AfBAA’s plans for 2013 is the commissioning of an in depth study into the framework of business aviation in Africa that will be used to support future planning; the association also plans to host a Regional Symposium in Q3 for all entities involved in business aviation in Africa to attend; and a subsequent White Paper will be published prior to EBACE.
 
The next AfBAA meeting will take place during EBACE 2013, which takes place in Geneva from May 22-24, where four of the founding members will share a booth at Europe’s largest annual Business Aviation conference. “This first meeting of the year was a great success with members showing their dedication by travelling up to nine hours in some instances to attend,” said Rady Fahmy, executive director of AfBAA. “We anticipate 2013 will be an exciting and productive year for the association and will see African business aviation gathering momentum on a global stage.”
 
Membership figures now stand at 19 founding members, four launch members and four regular members. The final founding member position is currently being negotiated.