NATIONAL Aviation Services (NAS), a fast growing growing ground handling company in the emerging markets and a subsidiary of Agility, has reached a new milestone in its expansion with its first contract award in West Africa. With the new contract, NAS has now expanded its operational network to 16 stations in nine countries.

Under the 10-year contract, NAS will provide ground handling services at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan as part of a public private partnership with the Government of Cote d’Ivoire. NAS was awarded the contract based on their proven track record and the solutions proposed to turn the airport back to a regional hub as it was in the past.

The ground handling contract includes passenger services, ramp handling, cargo management and warehousing as well as other related airport services.

The official signing ceremony took place in Abidjan in the presence of Gaoussou Toure, Minister of Transport, Abdourahmane Cisse, Minister of Budget, Nialé Kaba, Minister of Economy and Finance, and Hassan El Houry, CEO, National Aviation
Services.

Following the signing El Houry highlighted: “The Government of Cote d’Ivoire places development of its transport sector at the heart of its economic growth. As the chosen ground handling partner, we can provide them with the operational expertise, security and reliability required by the Abidjan Airport to reclaim its position as the aviation hub for West Africa.”

The Abidjan airport currently handles close to 1.5 million passengers, 8,200 aircraft and close to 20,000 tonnes of cargo. NAS Ivoire, led by newly appointed general manager Olivier Berni, will work through a six month transition period before taking over complete airport operations in mid-July.

From its initial operations in Kuwait in 2003, NAS quickly transformed itself into a leading airports service provider with a presence across regions: the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The company has a workforce of 6,000 employees and provides services to more than half of the world’s top 10 airlines. The company’s portfolio of services includes ramp and passenger services, cargo handling, engineering services and line maintenance, airport technologies, fixed base operations, the Aviation Training Centre, a travel agency and the Pearl Assist product which includes lounges and meet and assist services across the company’s network.