Dubai Airshow: Arab Wings obtains UAE AOC for Gulf Wings

Speaking today at the show, Ahmad Abu Ghazaleh, Gulf Wings accountable manager said: “I can’t stress how proud I man of each staff member in Arab Wings. The GCAA is a stringent authority, which is great news for operators in the region as aviation becomes safer here.”

Ghazaleh said that Arab Wings is aiming to be the largest aircraft services group in the UAE within two years. He added: “You may think this is ambitious, but to quote Warren Buffet, 'it is good to be fearful when people are greedy and greedy when people are fearful'. Our growth is organic and coming from revenues, which is great for us.”

He said that the next logical step for the company is to establish an MRO in Jordan and that Arab Wings already has: “several large MRO players in Europe talking about possible partnership with us.” Arab Wings fleet is mostly comprised of Bombardier aircraft, so any potential partner is likely to cater for that type.

Last Thursday Arab Wings established Afaq Holding Company in Bahrain, which is 70% owned by a group of Saudi investors and 30% by RJAC. Afaq has created Global Wings, a specialised global aircraft broker company based in the UAE. Headquartered in Bahrain, Global Wings will also share offices with Arab Wings and Gulf Wings in Jordan.

It will sell aircraft on behalf of Arab Wings as well as other operators. With an initial investment of US$1m, Ghazaleh anticipates that the company will do well for Arab Wings. He said: “We have seen the bottom of the market. A couple of years ago expansion here was exponential and unnatural. People were buying 20-30 aircraft people at once, but what we lack most in this industry is human resources, so we have seen lots of closures in the last couple of months.”