Libyan Airlines to become the leading airlines in Libya and surrounding region

Interview with Khaled Ben Alewa, CEO of Libyan Airlines

Before the revolution occurred, Libyan Airlines was reorganising, expanding, restructuring and purchasing new planes. Now that the revolution is over, what are the plans for the future? What strategy do you have in place?

After the revolution and in fact during the revolution, the delivery of aircraft was postponed and we had to reschedule. We received three Airbus 320s between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. Now we have two more deliveries due: an A330 in the next month and we will have another A330 in June. With this larger capacity we will expand the network for Libyan Airlines.

What are your expansion plans in this sense?

For the time being we are not really expanding but reopening the sectors that we have lost during the past year and a half because of aircrafts that were destroyed during the revolution for example the A300 that we used to fly to Dubai. Now we are operating this route with the A320 and with the delivery of the A330 we will start using this aeroplane for the route to Dubai. We might expand our routes to places further than Dubai in the eastern area.

Do you feel that the ban by the EU is justified or do you feel that you have been put in the same category as other airlines? Are your safety procedures and service quality up to standard?

For the last 6 or 7 months we have been working on meeting the standards required by the EU. It is a good thing that Libyan Airlines should reapply to the European safety requirements. We have just finished working on this and the Libyan Aviation authorities have passed on the results to the safety committee of the EU. We are waiting to receive the results by next week maximum.

Do you think the ban will be lifted this year?

Yes, hopefully very soon.

If this happens, what is your strategy for Europe?

For the time being we are flying to London, Manchester, Madrid and Malta. We use leased aircrafts but by lifting the ban then we will use our own brand new aircraft, some of which are only 3 months old. Hopefully we will begin flying with these aircraft.

What would you identify as your main challenge? Could it be the negative image of Libya? Or the EU ban? What are the strategic and operational challenges that you face?

The European ban is definitely a challenge. As I said, when you start to have a good quantity of aircraft to operate your network and then you have to lease aircraft just to operate certain sectors this is a great challenge. Obviously I want to return to using Libyan Airlines aircraft on flights to Europe. It is costing money to lease aircraft and as I said before, it would be better to operate with our own aircraft because they are brand new.

How do you face the competition, there are a lot of regional players in Morocco, Egypt and the Middle East? How do you compete with them?

Libyan Airlines has some competition in certain sectors, for example for the flight path Tripoli to Cairo we have a lot of competition from Egypt Air, or flying to Tunis or Sfax we have competition from Tunis Air and some other regional airlines. But we have a good share of the market; over the last 6 or 7 months of 2012 and the first few months of 2013 we have held good share of the market.

Could you be more specific?

Over 52% in certain sectors, in terms of between Tripoli and Cairo we have a 52% or more hold on that route.

Is profitability a major challenge to you, the difference between costs and revenue?

Yes, particularly when some regional competitors sell cheap tickets it is a challenge but we are doing well.

Is the negative image of Libya affecting you as an airline?

It does affect us. After the revolution we all have to work on reshaping our image.

In terms of restructuring, what is you plan for this year and next?

We have started to restructure the organisation of the company. We have just begun this process. We are not dividing the company but we are giving authority to three areas in Libya; the eastern, western and southern regions. We want to give these areas more flexibility with more authority.

What is your take on the competition with Afriqiyah Airlines?

We are not competitors, we are sister companies under the same parent company.

So you complete each other.

Yes, this is what we are trying to do.

Can you tell us how many employees this company has at the moment, and how many destinations you fly to and how many aircraft you have?

We have 2,300 employees all over Libya and we have 7 A320s, 7 CRJs and 2 8ERs and we will receive 2 A330s by June. We fly to most of North Africa, we fly to Tunis and Sfax and we fly to Casablanca, Cairo, Alexandria and Amman. We also fly to Dubai, Jeddah and Istanbul. In Europe we will start flying to Malta, Manchester, London and Madrid.

In terms of safety standards, what kind of certifications are you aiming for and what have you achieved already?

Last December after the audit we received the IOSA certificate. Once the European Union ban is lifted, I think we will have very good conditions.

What are the prospects for Libya becoming the regional aviation model?

I think once we have completed the two airports; Benina International Airport in Benghazi and Tripoli International Airport we will see a lot of air traffic coming to this country.

How much capacity would this mean?

I can’t give you the exact number but it will be a huge number if you see the plans for both airports, they are both very large airports.

Do you think that Libya can compete with Casablanca Airport, Cairo Airport and others to become an aviation hub?

I would say so. There are a lot of projects that are going to start in Libya such as construction, oil etc. So I think this will bring in a lot of people. Also we will have tourism.

Not only in terms of inbound traffic but also transportation and transitional routes…

Yes. Afriqiyah Airlines used to do this between Europe and Africa. So I would say yes, we will regain the African market.

Now that we can see the first signs of stability after the revolution, does this stability reflect on the number of passengers you are serving every month?

I would say so, yes. The numbers keep on rising. It has settled a bit with the schools not being closed yet but I would say it will rise again. We also have the season when the pilgrims who go to Mecca. We have a lot of traffic at that time. This started at the end of January 2013.

Can you give us some percentages, how much traffic do you have every month on average?

If we look at the period when people go to Mecca; we started on the 20th January, the number of passengers that we took to Saudi Arabia was around 25,000 by the end of March, that’s a period of around 70 days.

So the month on month growth of outbound and inbound travel would grow by 10% every month?

I can’t give you an exact number because it varies from sector to sector and you take an average for that.

I am trying to ascertain whether more people are coming into the country or flying out every month.

Traffic is growing in and out of the country, both ways.

Would you have a final message about Libya?

Libya will settle down very soon and we want it to be a great place, a heaven on earth.