Wings Establishing Strategic Saudi Arabia Operation

By Thabi Sibeko
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Johannesburg, South Africa 1 December 2015 - Wings Travel Management is establishing operations to service the Saudi Arabian market, commencing travel management services to one of its Fortune 200 tiered clients with operations in the Kingdom.

Considering this development and the interest expressed by other clients, Wings has advanced with the establishment of a Saudi Arabian registered company. With a Dubai office in operation since 2009, this expansion strengthens their presence in the Middle East market, and enables Wings to provide more localised support to their many oil and gas clients there.

Wings Travel Management CEO Tony Sofianos explains that establishing operations in Saudi Arabia is of strategic importance to its oil and gas division. “We have been servicing many large oil and gas, marine, and corporate clients in the Middle East for a number of years, primarily from our operations in Dubai, and supported by our operations in the UK, Africa and the Americas.

The Middle East remains an important market for these industries, and the Dubai operation served as a shared service centre for our global operations. The establishment of a Saudi Arabia operations will further strengthen our capabilities in servicing the oil and gas market in the Middle East, and businesses globally that have interests within the region.”

To meet the demands of the oil and gas industry, Wings Travel Management has established operations in strategically important geographical locations, namely Houston, Rio de Janeiro, Aberdeen, Dubai, Lagos, Luanda, and Cape Town.

Wings Travel Management COO for Africa and the Middle East, Frank Palapies states, “This year we decided that we were ready to aggressively target the Middle East with Saudi Arabia being a primary goal for our oil & gas division. While the considerable fall in the commodity price of oil has resulted in many oil and gas operations being ceased, particularly in exploration countries such as Cyprus and Mozambique, Saudi Arabia has remained relatively unscathed due to it being a global oil production centre. Our focus has now opportunistically shifted geographically, and Saudi Arabia is a very attractive business opportunity”.

The announcement of the establishment of a Saudi Arabian operations comes only a few weeks after Wings announced that it had acquired well-known South Africa based travel management company Michelle’s Travel – a key travel management service provider to many businesses within the oil & gas, mining and construction industries.

Both the Saudi Arabia and Dubai operations will be wholly-owned and controlled by the Wings Group. Sofianos states that this is a key and significant differentiator in the Middle East region. “Most of our competitors operate franchise or partner network models in this area,” he says. “We have also identified that their ownership and management in both the United Arab Emirates and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are different, further reinforcing the strength of our wholly-owned business model, as well as the opportunity.”

“This will allow us to deliver seamless travel management and logistics solutions. Most importantly, with a common technology platform and common control, we have the ability to seamlessly procure throughout our global network, which we believe will deliver cost saving opportunities to an industry that is in distress. Partner and franchise networks may claim that they can also procure globally, but we don’t believe this can be done on a sustainable basis given that P&Ls in such a structure are all independently owned.”

Sofianos concludes that the establishment of the Saudi Arabia operation will further strengthen the company’s ability to provide a service aimed at solving its clients’ toughest challenges worldwide. “We will not rule out the possibility of further operations within the Middle East market, or in any other geographical location of importance to the oil and gas market. In fact, we hope to announce the location of an additional new operation by early 2016.”

About Wings Travel Management:
Wings has carved a niche in the market as a trusted travel provider for clients in the oil, gas and marine sector, as well as corporate clients operating in service- and people-critical industries where travel is an integral part of their business. Founded in 1992, Wings’ global reach spans North America, South America, UK/Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, where the company has wholly owned and managed regional offices.

Wings is known for its unique expertise in navigating complex and challenging energy-related business travel, as well as its advanced, customizable technology solutions, all seamlessly accessible over a standardised global platform. The company is ISO 9001 certified, and manages its global operations with a quality management system that provides clients with comprehensive reports, including the proprietary Wings Incident-Free Index™, which tracks the performance of all service and supplier transactions.