Challenges

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Challenges Achievements
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• Who we are ?
• The Arab Air Carriers Organization AACO,
  established in 1965 within the framework of the
  Arab League, It is the Regional Association of
  the Arab Airlines who have their home base in
  countries members of the Arab League.
• AACOs headquarters is located in Beirut -
  Lebanon, while Amman- Jordan is the base of AACO
  Regional Training Center, and very soon branches
  for the training center will be established in
  other Arab cities.

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• AACO is a non governmental organization.
• AACO is a not for profit organization.
• AACO is the trade association of the Arab
  Airlines.

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AACOs Mission To Promote Cooperation amongst
Arab airlines and to serve their common interests
through service excellence.

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• AACO's Objectives
• To promote the highest safety standards.
• To provide a framework for a better economic
  environment for airline operations.
• To promote high standards of consumer driven
  services.
• To provide high quality and cost effective
  framework for human resources development.
• To invest in the synergy of interaction between
  members through establishment of joint projects.

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• AACO is having 23 member airlines , which were
  established in the following sequence
• EgyptAir (1932)
• Saudi Arabian Airlines (1945)
• Middle East Airlines (1945)
• Iraqi Airways (1945)
• Syrian Arab Airlines (1946)
• Sudan Airways (1946)
• Tunis Air (1948)

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• Gulf Air (1950)
• TMA (1953)
• Air Algerie (1953)
• Kuwait Airways (1954)
• Royal Air Maroc (1957)
• Yemen Airways (1962)
• Royal Jordanian (1963)
• Libyan Arab Airlines (1964)
• Emirates (1985)

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• Oman Air (1993)
• Qatar Airways (1995)
• Palestinian Airways (1995)
• Jordan Aviation (2000)
• Afriqyah Airways (2001)
• Etihad Airways (2003)
• Air Arabia (2003)

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• AACO Committees
• AACO works through several standing Committees
  namely
• Commercial Affairs Committee
• Technical Committee
• Information Technology Committee
• Services Committee
• Planning Development of Human Resources
  Committee
• Financial Affairs and Economic planning Committee

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• AACO is serving its members using the critical
  mass created by the increasing number of AACO
  members, where we had more than 11 Joint purchase
  projects .

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• Joint Distribution agreements
• in 1990 started the 1st joint project , it was
  the distribution agreement with Galileo, one of
  the major DCSs in the Middle East area.
• 8 airlines are Members of the Galileo
  distribution agreement.
• Followed by another agreement with Amadeus.
• 6 airlines are members of Amadeus distribution
  agreement.

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• Joint Fuel Purchase program
• 17 airlines are joining this project.
• 470 million gallons to be purchased by AACO
  carriers during the year 2007.
• Covers 540 international airport.
• More than 17 million dollars estimated savings
  during 2007.

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• Joint MIDT processing
• Marketing Intelligence Data (Tapes) Transfer
  (MIDT) allows airlines to conduct deep analysis
  of the information and provide decision making
  tool.
• Participating airlines ( seven member carriers
  who are GF, KU, ME, RJ, SV, IY, and MS) benefit
  from economies of scale under umbrella of AACO
  including joint training, and savings on the
  processing cost.
• Extra options had been added to the product free
  of charge during 2007 , as another achievement
  for the group.

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• AACO Regional Training Center ( RTC )
• Established in 1996 through a contribution of EU,
  Airbus and Boeing.
• Trained more than 12,000 trainee.
• Savings for Members in 2006 only more than 6.5
  million US dollars.
• Provide cost effective quality training , and
  education services with reputable universities.

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• Joint Cooperation at Outstations
• 14 member airlines benefits from the project.
• 5 stations are currently served , including
  London/Heathrow, Athens, Istanbul,
  Rome/Fiumicino, and Frankfurt.
• The future plan includes more stations in France,
  USA , Philippines, Pakistan, Russia, and more.
• Annual savings of approximately US 11 Million.

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• Joint IOSA Implementation
• AACO approached the accredited audit
  organizations and obtained about 35 discount on
  the auditing fees.
• Training for IOSA had been offered through AACO
  RTC at very competitive rates, as well as free
  programs for preparation of Local staff
  Instructors for the airlines to cover ongoing
  training activities, such as DGR and AVSEC.

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The Customer Systems Task Force A consultancy
study was conducted by Unisys, and was based on a
contract with 10 AACO carriers, under AACOs
umbrella. The study focused on future passenger
solutions and distribution services for airlines,
including studying the current situation of
GDSs. The Task Force assignment was split into
four modules, E-Ticketing, IBE, Core systems and
GDS relations.

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A. Common Use Self kiosks (CUSS) As a post
integrated action to the E-Ticketing issue, AACO
is approaching vendors and has initiated
negotiations for the deployment of common use
self service Kiosks at Arab airports.

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B. Core Systems AACO realizes that the Arab
airlines need to be up to date with their core
systems to be able to compete effectively, and
AACO CS taskforce has been involved in an
extensive action plan and reached perfect
agreement with 4 major providers. Discounts for
AACO carriers per booking fee between 10 and 30,
while discounts on the additional services and
options of the system were between 30 and 80.

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C. Internet Booking Engines AACO had negotiated
on behalf of its members, with different vendors
to receive commercial proposals on implementing
IBEs and related payment gateways. Agreement
had been done with 4 providers for pricing per
transaction ( transaction fee). Also AACO had
opened channels of negotiations with several
Banks to get better offers.

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D. Distribution Distribution environment is
changing through direct distribution channels and
low cost distribution models. The existing AACO
distribution agreements will expire in 2008.
AACO had negotiated new distribution agreements
with Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre, and had reached
better deal than the current situation
. Negotiations with other models of distribution
is currently taking place for internet booking
and low cost models..etc.

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Arabesk" Network Cooperation Project Arabesk is a
commercial network cooperation involving seven
Arab airlines, that helps the member airlines
strengthen their competitive position. Airlines
currently involved are EgyptAir, Gulf Air, Middle
East Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Saudi
Arabian Airlines, Yemen Airways, and Tunis Air.
Other airlines have also expressed interest in
membership as Afriqiyah Airways , and will follow
the application procedure.

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Arabian Air Pass Agreement The AACO Arabian Air
Pass agreement is a special multilateral
agreement on fares as a statement of commercial
cooperation in promoting travel on six airlines'
networks, and encouraging tourism to the Arab
region.  The agreement is applied worldwide on
board of the six carriers namely Air Algerie,
Libyan Arab Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Air
Maroc, Tunis Air and Sudan Airways.
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Technical Cooperation The Technical Committee is
starting a joint purchase of "Flight Planning
Systems" and "Route manual". And got discounted
rate on Jeppesen charts for airports, and is
negotiating joint purchase of the pilots
electronic kit. The committee is also embarking
on aircraft rental exchange between AACO members
through dedicating a page on AACO's website to
show all aircraft details of AACO members.
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Joint purchase of English Tests for pilots ATCs
AACO had reached an agreement with a Belgian
provider ( Aerosolutions) for on-line testing
product needed for the Aviation English Language
Proficiency required by ICAO before March
2008. As well Training for pilots and ATCs who
failed to comply with level 4 is available with
competitive rates, which resulted in large
savings for airlines and CAAs. This project will
be offered as well to states member of ACAC.
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Commercial cooperation activities AACO had
organized more than 32 meetings between member
carriers for concluding interline agreements and
SPAs in light with the new E-Ticketing
environment, 10 airlines had participated in
those agreements, and rest are following. Those
airlines are, Syrian Arab airlines, EgyptAir,
Royal Jordanian airlines, Libyan Airlines, Middle
East Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Yemen Airways,
Oman Air, Gulf Air and Afriqiyah Airways
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Industry Partners AACO has established the
Industry Partnership Program in 1998. It enables
the members of the program to be invited to our
technical forum meetings and to our General
Assembly attended by the CEOs and Senior
Executives of our 23 member airlines. The program
includes now more than 40 partners which include
service providers, aircraft and engine
manufacturers, reservations systems and more.
Industry Partners
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AACOs Aero-political Role AACO places a great
deal of importance to its relationships with
international and regional organizations namely
ICAO, IATA, ACAC, European Commission, US DOT and
Airlines Regional Organizations. Some issues on
the table are, the future of Euro-Arab relations
regarding bilateral agreements, ACAC Code of
Conduct ratification by the Arab States, Cape
Town Convention and its ratification, and the new
pro-rate methodology agreements.
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Arab European Negotiations AACO is currently
pursuing two major issues, namely to allow Arab
states to appoint other Arab airlines on European
sectors under a code share arrangement with the
concerned Arab national airline, and to stress on
the importance of "equal opportunities" concept
in operations between Arab and European
operators. A joint meeting amongst ACAC / AACO
and the EC dialogue group will be held in
Brussels soon, after the finalization of the
restructuring of ACAC, as EU requests that ACAC
to be represented during these meetings.
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International Cooperation AACO has established
strong relations with major Associations and
Authorities in the Aviation industry,
coordinating respectively positions and
initiatives on regional and international levels
seeking the interest of its member airlines.
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AACO has on-going coordination with IATA, and the
Airlines' Regional Associations being sister
organizations to AACO. AACO has established
permanent dialogue with governmental
organizations such as the Council of the Arab
Transport Ministers, the Arab Civil Aviation
Commission, the European Commission, US DOT and
Eurocontrol. The relations with these Authorities
help in making the voice of the Arab Airlines
heard while these organizations are in the
decision making process and also help in
defending the interest of the Arab Airlines
before these bodies.

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Thank you