Sample Projects

EgyptAir was established in 1932 to serve the domestic and Middle East markets and in 2002, the corporation was converted into EgyptAir Holding Company with related subsidiaries. Operating today as one of the Middle East and Africa’s leading providers of aircraft maintenance services with a fleet of 51 aircraft (and contracts for 18 more), EgyptAir Maintenance and Engineering (EgyptAir M&E) offers 24/7 services from its central operations and maintenance base at Cairo airport, which also serves as the largest transfer hub in the Middle East.

In 2008, EgyptAir M&E’s customer base had increased three fold in the previous six years, and the subsidiary needed to assess its internal business functions and determine ways to improve and enhance each department’s operations in order to improve overall productivity, customer satisfaction, and the subsidiary’s financial performance. They needed help in defining the project parameters, including how process and system changes might impact their organizational definition and growth.

With our extensive experience in Egypt working with ICT and infrastructure projects, we were honored to work with the EA Holding Board, EA M&E’s CEO and his senior staff, developing this “IT modernization plan”.

When our team toured the massive Cairo-based maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) organization’s assets, operations and learned about its challenges, it became apparent that modernization opportunities extended far beyond IT. EgyptAir M&E employs 4000 professionals at the Cairo airport, distributed among 17 work locations (including workshops and offices) and 8 remote locations throughout Egypt, with an additional 500 team members. Other workflow relationships include extensive and detailed procurements that support a diverse range of aircrafts, and the need to keep error-free records of ongoing engineering and maintenance activities on a per-aircraft basis -- which must comply with stringent air safety and sector regulations. Ongoing communications also transpire between aircrafts and EgyptAir M&E.

We requested a meeting with the CEO and Board. We knew the subsidiary was getting close to reaching a 400% customer base increase over the decade, with continued revenue and customer growth projections for the future. While EA M&E knew the modernization was founded in IT, we initially discussed how the investment should integrate with the Holding company’s ERP plans.

More importantly, in addition to supporting the internal business operations and process improvement requirements, in our assessment, the modernization plan opened the window to a strategic and higher value transformation plan: EA M&E could use its major MRO overhaul to redefine its supply chain processes, while engendering improved and more efficient and effective work relationships, transparency, and accountability with their suppliers, customers and regulatory authorities.

It took many meetings, and many late night cups of tea; we were honored when our recommendation was accepted. We returned to Cairo to develop the Strategic IT Modernization & Organizational Transformation Technical Assistance project, which aimed to improve and enhance EgyptAir M&E’s performance, while focusing on redefining the business mission and vision, along with critical business analyses, including, among other confidential elements:

• MRO Industry Analysis and Competitive Positioning Benchmarking Analysis
• Current Operations and Organizational Profile, Workloads and Current Cost and Fee Structures
• To the Future: Business, Technical, Financial, Maintenance and Organizational Requirements
• EA M&E Staffing Profile: Gap Analysis
• Profiling Market and Customer Opportunities
• Vendor and Customer Interactions: Opportunities for Engagement
• Creating the Transformed EgyptAir M&E Organization
• Finalizing the EgyptAir M&E Modernization and Transformation Plan
• Develop the MRO RFP Plan and Evaluation Criteria

We developed the entire scope of work, budget, staffing program, timelines, implementation plan and related project parameters, so that a consulting firm who specializes in aviation / MRO – and organizational transformations – could analyze EgyptAir M&E’s current operations and business processes to identify strengths, weaknesses, and deficiencies that were jeopardizing the subsidiary’s strategic goals. The firm would then define areas of potential improvement and organizational and process changes to position the business for more effective growth and sustainability.

We also contacted multilateral funding institutions and export promotion agencies, and were able to obtain extensive project funding from the US Trade and Development Agency for the major investment, and revenue and operations enhancement project initiative.

When EgyptAir M&E received proposals, we were again on-site, advising and assisting the senior team as they reviewed 8 world-class global MRO consultancy team’s proposals; we ensured that an efficient, effective and transparent RFP evaluation procedure transpired.

Following over one year of work, EgyptAir honored our firm as we continued our engagement in a private consulting capacity, supporting the EA M&E Chairman, and EgyptAir Board with additional senior level advice and counsel, relative to the subsidiary’s continued redefinition, investment planning, and customer and market outreach.

Today, EgyptAir M&E faces a lucrative and growing market; Aviation Week has noted that the Middle East air transport market may be among the fastest-growing in the world. We were honored to help EA M&E transform its business to be ready for this time and opportunity, while ensuring they have the modern and effective systems, procedures, and staff to support their growing regional business.