Bahrain's second charter airline launched

By Mazen Mahdi Mar 25, 2007, 15:03 GMT

Manama, Bahrain - Bahrain's second charter airline company was officially launched on Sunday with company officials sighting that they could take to the skies as early as April.

Rizon Jet, which was set up with an authorised capital of 30 million dollars and a paid-up capital of 10 million dollars, also plans to raise an additional 100 million dollars in the next two weeks to finance increasing its fleet size, officials said.

The total value of the initial aircraft will be 52 million dollars.

The company also plans at a later stage to build a 6 million US dollar maintenance center to service private jets from the Gulf, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the Indian subcontinent.

The airline aims to attract frequently-flying, high-profile, businessmen and company executives to meet the increasing demand for corporate aircraft charter within the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Gulf.

Shares of Rizon Jet are held by Bahrain-based Rizon Partners W.L.L. which is majority-owned by Ghanim Bin Saad Al-Saad and Sons Group from Qatar, the Bahrain-based AAJ Holdings Company, and the chairman of the company, Ibrahim Al Hamer.

Rizon Jet, with its headquarters in Bahrain and regional office in Sharja, UAE, expects to operate its first flight in early April with one light, six-seater Premier 1A aircraft, jet from Beechcraft.

The company plans to add one more similar aircraft in May and the core fleet will increase to four planes by the year 2008.

Al Hamer said that the company will build a Business Jets Maintenance Centre in Bahrain a year and a half from now at an estimated cost of 6 million US dollars to service private jets from the Gulf, Middle East and Indian subcontinent regions.

'The market is growing rapidly, and according to available statistics the number of business jets now operating in the region stands at 18 per cent of all operated aircraft and it is a figure that is the highest in Asia,' he said.

'The growth we are witnessing is between 15 and 20 per cent per year, which is impressive considering the growth rate for the same in the United States or Europe is around 5 per cent,' Al Hamer said.

Rizon Jet board member Hazem Janahi said the company is planning to raise an additional 100 million dollars through an Islamic Shaira compliant fund in the coming weeks.

He said that the company was close to making a deal with two financial institutions that have shown interest in the project.

Janahi pointed out that the initial focus is on the Gulf market but that Rizon Jet aimed to expand by November with operations for the Indian subcontinent and southern Europe with the arrival of longer-range airplanes.

'We hope to go trans-continental by 2008 covering most of Europe and the Far East,' he said.

The venture is the second charter airline type of service to be introduced in Bahrain in recent weeks trying to tap into the corporate services sector in the Gulf.

Earlier in March, 1.5 million dollar joint venture between British 2 Excel Aviation Ltd and the Bahrain-based Magnum Events & Exhibitions Management (MEEM) was announced to establish an aerial aerobatics team, known as the Blades in Bahrain.

Last January the chairman of the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA), Ali Al Naqbi, said that business aviation in the Middle East will be doubled in five years to 800 million dollars.