Dubai-based travel services firm dnata announced its second acquisition this year, the purchase of a majority stake in European centralised load-control planning firm Air Dispatch.
The acquisition comes as dnata, the travel-services company owned by Emirates Group, seeks to expand its service offering to clients beyond traditional airlines. The Air Dispatch acquisition comes a month after dnata’s purchase of a majority stake in the destination management company Destination Asia Group.
The deal value and the size of the stake in the UK-headquartered company were not disclosed.
“This latest acquisition will allow us to further broaden our portfolio to our airline customers and strengthen our position as a leading global air services provider,” said Stewart Angus, dnata’s divisional senior vice president of international airport operations.
“Air Dispatch is a company with a strong track record and valuable expertise, and we are confident that they will be a beneficial addition to the dnata family.”
Air Dispatch helps airlines to optimise the load and balance of their jets and cargo. It has 200 employees across its operations in Prague, Warsaw and the UK. The company’s clients include Air Berlin, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, LOT, SAS, Qantas and Qatar Airways.
“The need for one-stop trip planning, flight planning and fuelling services has today created the need for more exclusive services that are tagged in along with the overall ‘flight dispatch service’ offering,” said Mark Martin, the founder and chief executive of Martin Consulting.
“The growth with the world’s leading flight dispatch services today such as Palm Aviation, UAS, Jepessen Flight Support [and] Hadid ... dropping anchor in Dubai suggests the potential of the Gulf and Middle East region with non-airline aircraft operation in the region.”
“Clearly dnata’s acquisition of Air Dispatch enables the grounder to have a clear strategic edge when it comes to offering services to non-airline clients.”
jeverington@thenational.ae
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