James Hogan has travelled a long way since starting his career at the check-in desk of Ansett Airlines more than 35 years ago.
He moved up the corporate ladder at a variety of major service industry companies before joining Etihad Airways in 2006 as chief executive.
But his early experience in dealing with truculent passengers has made him an ideal choice to take Abu Dhabi’s flag carrier to the next level.
Known for a no-nonsense approach and common touch, Mr Hogan is in his element fending off accusations of unfair competition by European and US carriers. And with his rugby-player’s frame, his shoulders are broad enough to cope with some of the criticisms that have been levelled against the airline.
The latest flak that came his way was fired by Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the Air France-KLM chief executive, who accused Gulf airlines of benefiting unfairly from export guarantees for Airbus and Boeing aircraft.
Mr Hogan’s response is at once considered and forthright. “Why do European and North American airlines have a colonial right to rule the world?” he said in a recent interview.
“We have to be careful that one or two airline CEOs with vested interests don’t blow this issue out of proportion.”
Despite his apparent outrage, Mr Hogan could equally take the West’s comments as a form of flattery. Implicit is a recognition of the speed with which Etihad has grown from a fledgling operator into a global aviation contender in his little more than four years at the helm.
Since he took over, the carrier has added 33 destinations and 35 new aircraft, and increased the number of passengers carried each year from 2.8 million in 2006, to more than 7 million last year.
With this rapid growth, Mr Hogan continued a pattern set by his predecessors: in June 2006, a few months before he was appointed the chief executive of Etihad, the airline launched its 30th destination since it was formed at the end of 2003. And during Mr Hogan’s tenure, Etihad has branched out in new ways. It has focused on award-winning service and cabin offerings, become an integral part of Abu Dhabi’s 2030 plan, and secured a flurry of code-share alliances with other airlines to extend its reach. The latest of these was a major strategic alignment with the Virgin Blue Group signed last August to target the Australian market.
As the airline has grown, Mr Hogan has increasingly emphasised its "brand ambassador" role for the capital including sponsorships of an Australian football stadium, the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix and the English Premiership football team Manchester City.
Mr Hogan, 54, started at the sharp end of the airline industry.
“I began my career at the check-in desk,” he said.
Several promotions later, he moved into senior positions at bmi, Forte Hotels and then Hertz, where he spent 13 years. Mr Hogan returned to Australia in 2001, where he was appointed the chief executive of the Tesna consortium, created as part of an unsuccessful effort to acquire Ansett Airlines from administration.
His experience in the Middle East began a year later when he was appointed the chief executive of Gulf Air. He soon instituted a turnaround programme dubbed Project Falcon, which would seek Gulf Air’s first profits since 1997.
In 2004, Gulf Air swung back into the black, posting a US$4 million (Dh14.69m) profit and burnishing Mr Hogan’s management credentials. At Gulf Air, he also discovered a flair for marketing, re-branding the airline and launching unique services such as Gulf Traveller, an all-economy service based at Abu Dhabi International Airport, Sky Chefs, which features five-star chefs whipping up meals in-flight for first-class travellers, and Sky Nannies, an in-flight childcare service.
Mr Hogan resigned from Gulf Air in mid-2006, saying at the time that Project Falcon had been completed. Months later, Etihad installed him as its chief executive.
At Etihad, Mr Hogan turned his attention to putting the “glue” in the airline’s network, increasing the number of flights and re-aligning flight times to better co-ordinate the flow of travellers across Etihad’s hub.
He also introduced narrow-body aircraft into the fleet, giving the airline improved flexibility and extended service to routes with lighter demand.
On Mr Hogan’s watch, the carrier rose to sixth place in the Skytrax worldwide airline ranking survey for last year (second in the region only to Qatar Airways, which finished third). In addition, Etihad walked away with Skytrax’s top honours for best business class in 2009, and best first class last year.
With an eye to the next phase of growth, Mr Hogan in 2008 presided over Etihad’s largest aircraft order, and one of the biggest deals in aviation history.
The deal, made during the 2008 Farnborough International Airshow in the UK, included commitments for 100 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, plus options for another 105 aircraft. If all options are exercised, the order will be worth $43bn at list prices.
But as Etihad reaches a critical mass, analysts say Mr Hogan and the carrier will face a host of challenges in the highly competitive market for international air travel, especially with such ambitious neighbours as Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways.
igale@thenational.ae
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
No%20Windmills%20in%20Basra
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Diaa%20Jubaili%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20180%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%20Deep%20Vellum%20Publishing%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
