National Aviation Services (NAS) celebrated the first anniversary of launching its comprehensive range of award winning ground handling services in Abidjan on the 27th of September. A gala dinner at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Felix Houphouet Boigny International Airport was attended by more than 200 guests. More than 200 guests from the aviation industry including airline customers, travel agencies and freight forwarding customers attended the event which was presided over by guest of honor Mr Gaoussou Toure, Minister of Transport of Cote D’Ivoire. Also attending were Mr Hassan El Houry Group Chief Executive Officer of NAS and Mr Jean Louis Ekra, Chairman of the Board of Nas Ivoire.

The ceremony was opened by the Director General of NAS Ivoire Mr Abdoulaye Cisse. Mr Cisse thanked all of the guests and partners who had accepted his invitation to attend and while highlighting the significant improvements made over the first year of operations in Abidjan, insisted that significant work and investment remains to be done in the coming year. Mr Hassan El Houry, Group CEO of NAS recognized the support of Mr Gaoussou Toure, his cabinet and other key government stakeholders and reaffirmed the commitment of NAS to support the government’s transport policy by investing in and equipping the other main airports in Cote D’Ivoire.

Minister of Transport Mr Gaoussou Toure renewed his confidence in the NAS Ivoire team and welcomed the efforts put in place to respect the commitments made by NAS to the Ivorian Government under their ground handing concession. He further praised the entire NAS team in Abidjan for its professionalism and dedication.

NAS Ivoire has than 800 staff and a fleet of 300 pieces of ground support equipment, NAS provides passenger, ramp and cargo handling services at Abidjan.NAS under an exclusive 10-year concession to provide ground handling services at the airport by the Ministry of Transport in Cote D'Ivoire following a three-stage public tender in which more than ten different companies were competing for the contract.NAS provides ground handling services for more than twenty airlines at the airport including the national carrier Air Cote D'Ivoire and expects to handle 1,500,000 passengers at the airport in 2016.