National Aviation Services to commence operations in Indian subcontinent

The share purchase agreement was signed by Mr. Bara'a Al-Roumi, Managing Director of NAS and Mr. Sohan Mehta Managing Director of Nova Aviation Services at a signing ceremony at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Kuwait, will give NAS a majority ownership of the Indian company and will enable it to effectively manage projects currently handled by Nova in India under the NAS banner.

The agreement means NAS will provide ground support to airlines at the airports in Mumbai, Ahmedebad, Nagpur, Indore, Pune and Goa which are growing enormously in terms of airport traffic.

The agreement will also encompass cargo handling at some of these airports. After the acquisition the company will officially be known as NAS India and will take on the NAS brand Identity.

"This agreement opens new horizons for NAS and will allow us to expand geographically" said Mr. Bara'a Al-Roumi Managing Director of NAS in a press release "NAS has plans to further expand into the Indian subcontinent and subsequently into the Far East and this is a great stepping stone for us to enhance existing operations in India while adding to our portfolio of successfully managing airport facilities and providing top class aviation services" he continued.

"NAS will be investing a substantial amount of money in upgrading of the existing infrastructure at the airports that are being handled by Nova in addition to which we will bring in our expertise and our qualified teams for the initial set up of the operations which is intended to add value to the entire operation in India as a whole." he continued.

Mr. Naji Al-Ajmi CEO of NAS is of the opinion that "Nova has all the fundamentals of becoming a leading aviation company in the region and with our expertise and technical input combined with Nova's knowledge of the local industry; we can set new standards in aviation handling in the sub-continent."

"NAS has set perfect examples of improving on internal efficiencies without compromising on service delivery and this approach has worked tremendously to our advantage." affirmed Al-Ajmi whose roadmap for NAS includes setting foot in Africa and the Far East very soon.

"Forecasts indicate that aviation industry in India will need an investment of around $55bn in the next decade and turning to the private sector is one of the most logical ways to achieve this change that the Indian government is aiming for. Through this agreement with Nova, NAS is now a stakeholder of the Indian aviation industry and as such can help add value to the total solution by improvising on infrastructure, sharing knowledge and expertise and increasing on benefits to other stakeholders and users of Indian airports" added Al-Ajmi.

Business Development Director, Adel Al Askar said: "In addition to providing services like Ground Operations, Passenger Services, Engineering, Line maintenance and Cargo Services we will also be looking at the potential of introducing our value added services like the Meet & Assist Service, Airport Lounges and others" he added.

"Research shows that passenger traffic into Indian domestic airports will increase to 45 million passengers by the year 2010 and the airlines operating within the country will have around 450 - 500 new aircrafts added to their respective fleets by then. This estimated growth in itself reaffirms our faith in the growing aviation industry in India and NAS along with Nova will definitely be looking towards achieving many milestones in the future." Al Askar concluded