Leaders in Aviation awards made in Doha

A glittering awards ceremony was held last night in Qatar as the Doha Aviation Summit started with the Leaders in Aviation awards.

The awards were presented by Abdul Aziz Al Noaimi, the Chairman of the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority.

The first award of the evening went to Captain Sameh El Hefny, president, Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority in recognition of the contributions made by the winner towards aligning the objectives of the MENA aviation industry with ICAO objectives.

And a special recognition award went to H.E. Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of the UAE’s GCAA for the achievements made representing Group 3 at the 37^th ICAO assembly.

The most popular award with the packed industry crowd was for a man who was credited with leading an inspiring growth of an airline and contributing towards the long term vision of Qatar. The winner was of course Qatar Airways CEO Akhbar Al Baker.

Another award to cheer the Qataris was the Scholarship Committee recognition Award which went to Mr Al Abdullah Al Sobai, director of finance at the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority in recognition of the training programmes being organised for the next generation of aviation professionals.

One MENA airport to be among the awards was Abu Dhabi which won the award for the best green initiative by an airport. The best green initiative for an airline went to Malaysian Airline subsidiary Firefly Airlines

On the airline front, Adel Ali was on stage to collect an award for the best Low Cost Carrier presented to Air Arabia.

The Airport of the Year prize went to the winners Athens International Airport and the award for the Airport-Airline Partnership went to Malaysia Airports for its work in reducing costs for airlines during the financial downturn.

Al Baker and Adel Ali will be among the leading speakers at the Summit which gets underway today.