National Aviation Services wins Groundforce Portugal tender
Groundforce provides ground handling services to airline customers at Lisbon, Porto, Funchal & Porto Santo airports.
National Aviation Services (NAS) was selected as a preferred bidder by the insolvency administrator of Serviços Portugueses de Handling (SPdH), trading as the ground handling company Groundforce Portugal.
"Pending final negotiations with various stakeholders including liquidators, TAP Portugal and the Portuguese State, NAS will acquire 50.1 percent shares of the company in Portugal," says a statement from NAS.
Groundforce currently provides ground handling services to TAP Portugal and other airline customers at Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Funchal, and Porto Santo airports, the statement added.
"It is an honour for NAS to be selected for the Groundforce Portugal tender and are excited at the opportunities this brings us to enhance ground handling and cargo services at the different airports in Portugal," says Hassan El-Houry, Group CEO, NAS.
"This is also a huge milestone for NAS as it marks our first entry into the European ground handling industry."
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NAS has experience in aviation services, particularly ground handling and cargo management. Its customers include British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France–KLM, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Ethiopian Airlines. The company operates in 23 countries and over 55 airports across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa with an employee strength of more than 8,000.
"We firmly believe that we have the three key factors necessary to be successful in Portugal, namely - shareholder and management stability which makes us long term investor, financial strength to overcome ups and downs common in the industry and the experience from operating in complex markets which makes us adaptable to challenging environments," El-Houry added. "This, coupled with strong local partnerships, ensures we deliver the best in all the countries that we operate in."
With a strong financial standing, NAS is committed to investing in people, training, technology and infrastructure to help make airports more efficient and transform them into logistics hubs, the statement said.
