Business aviation in North Africa is doubling world average growth - MEBAA

Business aviation activity in North Africa is out-performing global average, according to MEBAA, the association for business aviation across the Middle East and North Africa.
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According to research by German data and consulting firm WINGX, registered business aircraft is growing at 6.3% CAGR across the North African region -, nearly double the global average of 3.7%. The research was commissioned by MEBAA.

The insights were presented at MEBAA’s conference held in Marrakech under the patronage of H.E. Abdullah Bouhouche the director general of Morocco’s    civil aviation authority.

The presentation also revealed:  

            North Africa’s Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) market has grown by 30% over the past 5 years

            Despite the growth of fleet size, business aviation activity has declined by 4.8% in 2013 by comparison to 2012

            Morocco is the most active market with 50% of all North African aircraft movements so far this year.

The study is the first of its kind to examine the market size of business aviation in North Africa and break it down according to activity and aircraft category.

So far this year there have been 7651 departures from North Africa, which represents a 2.5% drop on 2012. The slowdown reflects a disrupted first quarter during which there was significant political instability. In Q2, activity increased by 1.2%.

Across Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia and Tunisia there have been 14,832 business aviation aircraft movements YTD. On current trends, this will increase to 22,750 movements for the full year 2013.

In terms of flight operations YTD, private-filed flights have accounted for 33% of activity, charter flights for 53%. Egypt and Morocco lead the way in charter departures, with customers from these two markets on track to generate 9000 sectors in 2013. As a whole, the North African region is estimated to engender at least $200m in charter revenues this year.

The research also shed light on business aviation aircraft types being operated in and out of the region. Year to date, heavy jets and turboprops/pistons accounted for 20% and 28% of flight hours, respectively. In the charter market, over 60% of all flight hours were flown by bizliners, ultra long range and heavy jets, underlining a distinct customer preference for large cabin long range aircraft.

As ever within any maturing business aviation sector, safety is paramount to the future success of the market. As such, suppliers of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services have become an essential fixture in the North African business aviation sector. Figures from the WINGX study show that the regional MRO market has grown by more than 30% over the past five years. The largest markets of which are Morocco, Egypt and Algeria, comprising an 80% share.

The founding chairman of MEBAA, Ali Al Naqbi (pictured right) ,  said, “As an association which is committed to providing accurate data to the industry, North Africa has always been a region without credible fact based data, until now.

“MEBAC’s intelligence partner for MEBAC Marrakech, WINGX, has extrapolated sought after insights and data for North Africa. WINGX’s presentation at MEBAC will provide our members an in-depth real-time look into one of the fastest growing regions in the world.”