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.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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