Biz meetings in full swing

Business activities on the second day of the Bahrain International Airshow 2016 (BIAS) were in full pace with the inauguration of the “Air Transport in the 21st Century,” conference by Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Kamal Ahmed, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Organising Committee of BIAS.

The conference discussed major issues affecting Middle East carriers, including increased competition, passenger experience, deregulation and the Open Skies agreement. The panel of speakers included Akbar Al Baker from Qatar Airways, Adel Ali from Air Arabia, Paul Byrne from Flynas and Philip Saunders from Kuwait Airways.

Significant announcements for the day included the signing of agreements and memorandum of understandings (MoUs) between the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication’s Civil Aviation Affairs and other countries. These included Air Service Agreements with the Czech Republic, Georgia and Hungary. MOUs were signed with Egypt, and Pakistan. 

A bilateral Air Services Agreement was also signed by Kamal Ahmed and the President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Sulaiman Al Hamdan. It includes increasing the number of flights between the two countries to 107 flights per week. The MoU will grant Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air to operate flights to domestic airports.

Kamal Ahmed also met his counterparts from Jordan and Morocco. Key business meetings with companies at the airshow, including Comlux and Huawei were also held.

The daily four-hour flying display continued with aerobatic displays by the Saudi Hawks, Emirates AlFursan, the Indian Sarang helicopter team, the Twister team and Mark Jeffries.

Speaking about the day’s events, Minister Kamal Ahmed said: “The second day has proved to be another success with fruitful discussions and major agreement signings and announcements, which further emphasise BIAS’ position as a platform for forging ties and relations with companies and industry leaders.”