Fitting in to what appears to be the private sector’s modus operandi when investing in Syria in the wake of economic reform, private airlines are only this year taking to the skies, three years after the law had been amended. In 2005, Damascus allowed private investment in air transport for the first time in 60 years, during which the national carrier, Syrian Arab Airlines (SAA), enjoyed a monopoly.
But it has only been in the past six months that the private sector has started to capitalize on the liberalization of the market, with Damascus granting licenses to three private Syrian airlines, of which Sham Wings is the first to get underway with a charter flight to Sharm el-Sheikh in early February of this year.
This seemingly cautious approach to investing in Syria reflects the banking sector’s trajectory into the market, only setting up shop years after private banks were formally allowed into this formerly socialist economy. But the recent flurry of activity in aviation is indicative of the changes the economic reforms in Syria have brought about, with the time lag between the liberalization of the sector on paper and actual developments on the ground creating the conditions for a more viable aviation industry.
Rising tourism numbers
“The main reason for us to set up was the rise in tourists and Iraqis in Syria,” said Salim al-Sawda, technical director of Sham Wings Airlines, which was established by Iraqi and Syrian private investors.
In the past three years, investment in the tourism sector has surged from $400 million in 2004 to $2 billion in 2006, while the number of tourists visiting Syria has spiked from 2.5 million in 2005 to 3.1 million in 2006, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. And if Iraqis and Lebanese were to be included in the figures, the number of visitors would stand at 4.4 million in 2006, versus 3.4 million in 2005, a rise of 29%.
Indeed, with an estimated 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria there is a ready market for air links between Damascus and Baghdad, which until February had been dominated by Iraqi Airways (IA). Now Sham Wings offers flights, directly competing with IA at $567 return (due to high insurance costs at the Iraqi end).
Sham Wings, the country’s first charter airline, has started with one aircraft, a 147-seater McDonnell Douglas MD-83 leased on an ACME basis from an Egyptian company, that way getting around the US ban on the Syrian aviation sector.
The airline plans to buy aircraft “one by one,” said Sawda, and is currently in discussions to by a European-made Folker-100 jet. “We have already increased our timetable, not only to Iraq, but also Sharm el-Sheikh and Alexandria, and we will open a new line to Istanbul, as well as to Ukraine and Belarus. Our destinations will be ones not covered by Syrian Airways.”
The airline, which plans to be profitable within the next two years, is to be joined this year by Syrian al-Nisr Airlines (The Eagle), established by Syrian private investors Al-Harith al-Assad and Mayyar Arnous, and by Pearl Airlines, which is backed by Syria’s Cham Holding. Both airlines have been granted international licenses but have made no statements on intended destinations.
Other licenses are also pending, for cargo, charter and non-charter airlines, said Flight Commander General Hazim al-Khadra, director general of the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority.
“The policy of Syria now is to open the market in the field of aviation. But there is no Open Skies Agreement, only to Bassil al-Assad Airport in Lattakia, as we cannot do it at Damascus International Airport (DIA) since we must have more than one national carrier that can compete with other airlines, let alone the capacity of the airport itself,” he said.
Airport expansion
With the number of tourists visiting Syria increasing by 20% in the past year, and foreign investment flooding in, the country’s airports are witnessing a turnaround, with a 10.5% increase in passengers to 3.485 million last year.
According to al-Khadra, “This is a result of the action plan drawn by our leader, Bashar al-Assad, towards the development and rehabilitation of modernizing Syria.”
As part of the country’s second five-year plan for the 2006-2010 period, some $3.75 billion is forecast for infrastructure developments in the transport sector. Much of this is earmarked for port and road development, but aviation is also getting a much needed boost.
In January, Malaysia’s Mahibbah Engineering won a $59 million construction contract at the DIA to rehabilitate and upgrade the passenger terminal building, roads, car parks and parking apron.
This is just the start of major projects to expand the ageing airport, said al-Khadra, with plans on the drawing board to increase DIA’s current capacity from 1.5 million to 3.5 million passengers a year. “With the next fifth action plan there will be another terminal, catering to 7-8 million passengers, maybe in the next five years.”
The number of international airports is also to be increased, from the current five — Damascus, Lattakia, Aleppo, Deir al-Zor and Qamishle — to eight, with Homs, Tadmur (Palmyra) and Al-Raqqa to get airports of their own.
Al-Khadra said bids and tenders to build and upgrade facilities would be open to international bidders, and there was potential for ground services at the airports to be privatized, pointing out that “This all depends on the development of the economic situation in Syria. Nowadays, Syria values investment from everywhere.”
The number of airlines operating out of Syria could also increase from the current 40 that fly out of Damascus, but that is all “related to the political situation in the region,” according to him. “For instance, European and American airlines are not allowed to operate out of Syria. This is a consequence of the US ban against Syria.”
The US ban on Syrian aviation is one of the biggest hurdles the sector faces, not only in terms of increasing flight destinations and enticing operators, but in particular for the national carrier. Under the 2003 Syrian Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act (SALSA), Washington placed a ban on all US exports to Syria, a ban on US investment in the country, and a ban on Syrian flights to the US, among other regulations. Under such sanctions Syrian Airlines is unable to upgrade its ageing fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, last added to over a decade ago when in 1996 the US granted a special waiver to the airline to purchase used Boeing aircraft from Kuwait and two Airbus A320s in 1998.
“It is a big problem because US aviation interferes with the aviation industry, the spare parts for commercial airlines in particular, which maintain the safety of passengers. And these passengers aren’t only Syrians, but also Europeans, Americans, Asians and so on,” said al-Khadra. “Even Airbus is included in this ban as they cannot sell Syria any Airbus aircraft or spare parts because the Americans are between 10-15% shareholders in these companies.”
The other option for SAA is to buy Russian aircraft, but he said they lacked the American-made Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS), which is essential for air safety and a requirement for commercial aircraft by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Diversifying Syria’s air sector may therefore be the only way to get around the crippling US bans, for unless SAA gets spare parts, the airline could be permanently grounded — if planes don’t actually fall from the sky — as private Syrian airlines take to the skies.
