Fahd Cynndy, CEO, Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI) • Interview

With expectations of booming air travel in Saudi Arabia in the medium term, SAEI is working to ensure it has the right pipeline of talent in place.

What did SAEI look like pre-COVID-19?

We operate in 87 global locations and have close to 6,800 technicians and mechanics scattered around the world. Our primary customer is Saudia, though we have been extremely successful in integrating a military segment. We have a massive contract with the armed forces and the air force, which we are proud of. We have aggressively pursued other third-party customers over the past five years, but I am scaling that effort back to focus on our fundamentals. We are going back to the basics. I launched a project called “Getting the Basics Right” and am focused on making sure we have a clear pipeline of talent and skilled labor. After they finish their academic training, it takes about five years for our staff to be certified. It is a lengthy process not unlike going to medical school. Quality and liability come at an important cost. The moment something is fixed, it should not break again for a good amount of time. We are building a whole department for reliability. I also strongly believe in not just being a Saudi Arabian company, but a global one that happens to be based in Saudi Arabia. As a virtue of that, I believe in a multinational organization. That is the level of thinking I would like to bring to Saudi Arabia and an active discussion for global leaders from Germany, the US, Australia, Switzerland, or wherever our leadership comes in. I hope that will also trickle down at a lower level, and I hope to inject that mosaic mentality of all different backgrounds and diversities coming together and open doors for multinationalism. This changes the perspective from being a Saudi company to a global company.

How did SAEI react to the pandemic, and what does this mean for the organization?

It is important to look at it from a maintenance perspective. Aircraft maintenance is done on two fronts: one is cycle and hours, which are directly proportional to flight time, and the second is calendar and scheduled maintenance. When it comes to airplanes, 50-60% of maintenance is calendar driven. Once the plane passes a certain timeframe, you have to perform maintenance, and that is a running, fixed cost. We have to reinvent the way we do things to become more cost effective and recover that value at a bigger margin for our customers. Everyone in this industry is currently on life support, and anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth. Looking at the aerospace industry, despite the economic difficulties, the well-being of our pilots and mechanics is paramount. They can make or break this industry. Outside the aircraft itself would be air traffic controllers. Many CEOs are reducing man hours, shortening workdays, and eliminating overtime; however, I would rather tell employees to stay at home rather than reduce their wages at the end of the month. We had to shed a lot; every bit counts. We are doing our part to become less expensive for airlines, because they are stuck—they have to do maintenance. It will be a slow recovery for the air travel industry as a whole, though Saudi Arabia will be much faster. We are driven by a massive domestic market, a vibrant nation. Not needing to travel as much to do business and being able to work from home will significantly disrupt the travel industry as well. Seeing the recovery of Saudi Arabia, which will cascade over to the rest of the region feeding the UAE and Qatar, I expect to reach close to 7580% of our pre-COVID-19 activity. That means we will not have the luxury of hindsight to see what we did wrong, and the intensity of work will help us get back into shape. We want to be ready for the circumstances that face us in this new environment.