Wings of change

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High hopes: Marwan Boodai is proud of the private airline’s expansion, which has included acquiring a new Airbus A320 and adding more flight destinations.

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Proud: Jazeera’s commitment to going the extra mile was proven during the Beirut crisis, while the Kuwaiti government has commended it for reliable performance.

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Three years ago, the Kuwaiti government opened its domestic aviation sector to competition — a decision that allowed private airlines to compete with the state-owned Kuwait Airways Corporation in both the passenger and cargo markets.

The opportunity proved irresistible for Marwan Boodai, the founder and CEO of Jazeera Airways, who wanted to create a low-cost airline for passengers travelling between Kuwait and other Middle Eastern destinations.

Jazeera Airways was born as a result of those aspirations, starting operations in October 2005. 14 months later, and Boodai has managed to overcome the usual start-up hurdles and achieve a considerable amount of success along the way. “Opening the aviation industry in Kuwait was a challenge, especially because it was independent from the government,” he says. “Jazeera Airways was launched as the Middle East’s first privately owned airline. It specifically targeted the low-cost passenger market, which I think was previously neglected by the airline industry.”

During the early days, Boodai and his team approached governments in the region to secure traffic rights and present the airline’s ‘low-cost, high-value’ business model.

“We created a detailed business plan with the help of leading international consultants,” says Boodai. “It highlighted Jazeera Airways’ ability to create value in the travel markets of each country we served. We are presenting a quality service, with a fleet of brand new aircraft, built in England and Germany and featuring the world’s best engines from France.”

The airline’s fleet currently includes four Airbus A320s, the standard workhorse in the low-cost carrier market, while a fifth A320 is being added to the fleet next month.

From the first day of operations, the carrier managed to obtain five destinations, which initially proved sufficient for its relatively small fleet. However, Boodai has grand plans for the airline’s expansion, and claims Jazeera Airways has opened more routes than any other Middle East airline — with over 13 destinations, including Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt and Jordan. It also services Iraq and a number of cities in India.

“Day by day, month by month, whatever we promised was delivered,” says Boodai.

“Of course, expanding the existing routes and being competitive is important, but the priority was making life easier for passengers by simplifying the travel process — and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve also boosted the local economies and expanded our operations at the same time.”

Jazeera Airways has faced a number of challenges during its first year of operations. Among the most prominent, according to Boodai, was the airline’s role in evacuating people from Beirut last July and August, during the two-month bombing of Lebanon. However, instead of being caught unawares, it seems Jazeera Airways was fully prepared for such unexpected events. “We accounted for everything, including this crisis, even though it was sudden and shocking,” asserts Boodai.

Flights were diverted to Damascus and Aleppo in Syria, with a large flow of Kuwaiti residents carried. Boodai views the Beirut crisis as a test of Jazeera’s well-planned risk management strategy systems and procedures, and he is proud of the job he and his team have done. The Kuwaiti government also gave the airline acknowledgement for its role in helping the country.

“The logistics of operating from two airports was mammoth, because there were thousands of passengers without tickets and identification,” he adds.

“However, we proactively planned for such occurrences and this worked in our favour. We managed to swiftly carry 8000 people out of the country in good time, which is a great achievement from a humanitarian point of view.”

In one of the most competitive business sectors, however, many industry experts remain unconvinced that new start-ups are able to last the distance, and suggest that the majority fold in the first year.

But Jazeera is one start-up that has forced the analysts to admit they got their predictions wrong. Observing that the Middle East aviation market is expanding faster than ever before, Boodai can only predict rising fortunes for the airline.

“Today, the Middle East market has more than 130 million passengers. It shows that the size of our market and the potential to grow in the future,” he confidently says. “Being the very first private airline in the Middle East has obvious advantages. We can move fast and steady to capture the market.”

Boodai is under no illusion however, that next year will be another challenging 12 months with the launch of even more new destinations. Spurred on by the growth of low-cost carriers in European markets, he aspires to achieve something similar. “This will happen in the Middle East, but it’s only the beginning,” he predicts. “We have also planned and earmarked a couple of new flight destinations.”

In the presence of Boodai’s infectious enthusiasm, it is hard to resist asking whether Jazeera will come up with a proposition for long haul low-cost flights. But the Jazeera CEO is coy about ruling this out.

“There is a potential to expand further to long haul in the future,” he admits. “Jazeera’s business model is to maintain the lowest possible cost, while offering the highest value of product. We would hope to offer that for long-haul services, but still need to fully explore this option.”

With such an ambitious and positive chief executive at the helm, the future seems bright, and Jazeera airlines has proved itself as one to watch in 2007.

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