A stunning "first":
Algerian company wins O.M. ´s sponsorship

Those thought to be contenders, Orange, Sony or Marionnaud. Even Microsoft was included...

Since Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunication company bowed out, the football world was rife with rumour as to the identity of the new sponsor for "Olympique de Marseille". But it was however hard to anticipate that instead of a logo of an American computer titan or a Japanese electronics giant, it would be the condor of Khalifa Airways spreading its wings across the O.M. jersey ! And that Robert Louis - Dreyfus, the president of this mythical team would take as a new partner a young head of company absolutely unknown in France.

This is no longer a stunning "first": it is indeed a cultural shock. Marseilles is considered as the first "Algerian" city in Europe by the number of Algerians nationals and Franco-Algerians it inhabits, but it is, for sure, the first time that a North African company is eminently parading on this Phocaean stronghold, whose symbol is the Velodrome Stadium.

What did you say, Rafik who? Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa? The tall young man with sparkling eyes sitting beside Robert Louis - Dreyfus ? No, undoubtedly, he can ´t be seen...
But just ask any youth, a thousand kilometers from here, beyond the Mediterranean Sea, to tell you who this boy is, and you ´ll get an answer. Rafik Khalifa is a successful man. A private contractor who has created more employment in Algeria - nine thousand already, and he is not stopping there. A buddy to Khaled, Cheb Mami, Zinedine Zidane. A guy one would like to have as a boss cum big brother, because you know that he will lift you higher than his own dreams...

A leading figure at the age of 35, a part of a generation that had witnessed the explosion of the easing of trade restrictions in his country, Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa sees beyond. For his group, which has literally ascended since its creation in the dispensary of a pharmacy in the western suburbs of Algiers ; for the younger generation of his country, whose future is not promising ; for this Euro-Mediterranean region, where his ideas, currencies, and men circulate always more rapidly and more efficiently...

And particularly, for Algeria.

Discreet and reserved, the young Managing Director was, for the first time, on spotlights of the French bulletins, during the presentation of the new sponsorship of O.M. on June 11th 2001. Rafik Khalifa is more of an action man than a salesman. He has for sure friends among the stars, but this happy-go-lucky prefers relaxing with his counterparts far from paparazzi cameras - most of them, often good old friends. And the presentation of this unexpected sponsor by Robert Louis - Dreyfus, in the Havas Advertising Head office ´s
Amphitheater, at Levallois Perret, had aroused a legitimate curiosity.

Who is this self-made-man with a face, serious yet juvenile at the same time, who has earned himself fortune and a destiny within ten years only, by a serial of strategically brilliant redeployments ? What pushes Rafik Abdlemoumen Khalifa ?

A story of a dazzling ascension, charming... unexpected - except for his main protagonist !

1 - Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa: portrait of
a modern Algerian

Optimist, creative, generous and jovial...
Careful, responsible, reserved almost to humility.... The portrait is different from that given by the family and his collaborators.
A mixture of skills that enabled the young head of company become one of the pioneers of the free market economy in his country - just like his father had been one of the founders of a modern Algeria...

In a country where everything needs to be done: An inventor of companies

One should imagine Algeria thirty years ago, the way it is described by those who had lived it... A sort of little Russia under the "Maghreb" sunshine, plenty of natural resources, but managed according to the socialist economical system.
Empty stores. An overcrowded public sector with personnel less inspired to give up the already acquired advantages to re-invest into the private sector, severely restricted by the State monopoly on foreign trade. A heavy industry, reduced to dwelling on a limited profitable area, the petrochemical sector. But unable to manufacture daily consumption goods - a car, an aspirin tablet, a vacuum cleaner, a baby-nappy.... Everything has to be imported. But not all is. As a result, the shelves are desperately empty...
This is the situation in the country where Rafik Abdelmoumen
Khalifa made his first foot-steps. A country where everything has to be done.

The authorities, definitely concerned by social justice, focused on access for everybody to health, housing and education benefits - 92% of the population was illiterate in 1962, today illiteracy no longer exists whereas it is still there in the neighbouring Morocco.
But, the intellectual elite, capable of steering the country ´s economy, has to join the civil service soon after graduating, for a period of five years, either in national companies, public hospitals, ministries or so. A comfort which becomes later on difficult to renounce.
As a result, "a generation taken care of by the State, used to being assisted", laments Mrs. Djaouida Jazaerli, a professional jurist and a former assistant lecturer in the faculty of Law at the University of Algiers. She is the lawyer for Khalifa Airways and a maternal aunt to Rafik Khalifa...
Those in their forties and fifties, are today pressured by the change from socialist-interventionist economy to easing of trade restrictions in the late 80´s at times, rough. " They were not able to melt into this true revolution in their habits " continues Djaouida Jazaerli. "The successful ones are the younger ones, who took risks, worked continually, and had nerves hard as steel".
Like his nephew.

Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa is a pure product of a juridical, cultural and social revolution which introduced trade market economy in Algeria, towards the end of the nineties, under the presidency of Liamine Zeroual - to start with a new Commercial Law.
A revolution which his elders could not even have imagined fifteen years ago, since they could read clearly in the 1975 National Chart: " the private sector which is exploiting the workers..."
A revolution which was hardly noticed by the outside world, as most of the news on Algeria focused on security problems during the past ten years.
The young man who has just celebrated his thirty fifth birthday on October 1st 2001, is part of this new generation of private contractors, ready to face the free-market trade without any help from the Public Sector, but at the same time ready to join them in their efforts to develop the country. This new Algeria, a moving forward Algeria which he could see right from the beginning emerging, and in which he is one of the pioneers.

First medicine manufactured in Algeria by a private company ?
By him. His Mercryl, manufactured in the dispensary of this familial pharmacy in Cheraga, in the outskirts of Algiers, out of the components and packing paper imported from France, still bearing today the registration agreement n° 001 of the Ministry for Health. A document duly and carefully framed ! With this success, KRM Pharma, the first company manufacturing medicines in the country at its creation in 1990, today ranks in the 6th position among young pharmaceutical industries in Algeria.

The first credit card for the use of clients in an African bank?
Again him, during summer 2001. Or rather, El Khalifa Bank, the first private banking establishment to have acquired an agreement in 1998 from the Ministry for Finance. Since the opening of the first agency in Cheraga, sixty more branches have followed throughout the country, making an annual turnover of more than 400 million dollars.

The first private aeronautical operator in the country ?
Again it ´s him. Khalifa Airways launched in August 1999, connecting Algiers to Oran, will transport around 1,5 million passengers in 2001 on domestic flights as well as flights to France, Spain or to the Middle East..

The first Car Rental company for Algerians without having a French bank account ?

Of course, him. All you need is a Khalifa Airways air ticket or an El Khalifa Bank Credit Card to hire a car from Khalifa Car Rental. Simply think of it !

The first African company displayed across the jersey of a European football team ? We saw him, rescue the O.M. from a serious financial difficulty, with annual investment of 18 million French Francs, for the next five years...

It is clear that Rafik Khalifa has always been a step ahead of his competitors in the public and private sectors, and as his ultimate goal is to modernize and place his country on the lime light positively, it is therefore in Algiers where he likes best to negotiate his businesses with foreign partners, to make them discover. The young man ´s motto is: "what we can do today, has to be done".
He never goes for easy tasks. He could have, like many of his compatriots, got involved in import-export business, or manufactured products of big added value, or even applied his knowledge overseas, where he was already being sollicited at the age of twenty three, by a Swiss pharmaceutical company. But he had chosen to stay in Algeria even if he clearly understands those ones who choose to emigrate. "Our generation grew up in the height of communism. We never thought that it would change. At any rate, not that fast."

Despite the difficulties, he prefers to face a mountain of administration, largely inherited from the socialist system installed at independence. After launching the KRG Pharma, the first private firm producing pharmaceutical products, which had certainly pumped in more capital, he decided to venture into sectors with varied activities, among them the most complicated and very exposed, requiring heavy investments and high techniques: the bank and the aviation. But, why?
"Because what characterizes a developed country is the modernity and efficiency of its banking operation system plus its transportation", replies Rafik Khalifa. "And the international window - screen of a country is its airline company... Khalifa Airways works for Algeria, because l believe in my country."

Forever running:"Moumen" in the eyes of the family

Listening to him, makes you believe too. The charisma reinforced by the stunning success he has achieved in the past few years is quite obvious. The young man, dressed in a sports shirt and a black suit - not to be serious - but to blend with harmony that slightly creamy skin of a happy - go - lucky ´s outlook - convinced already as soon as he starts to talk. The smile pronounced by a short billy beard is swift. Sharp black eyes. A slightly low voice, at times too quick to follow, but always laced with jokes and irony.
" He gives the impression of not taking anything seriously, confirms, Hania Khalifa, his wife since 1995, and a mother to their three year old little Melissa Nour Djihane...
The beautiful young woman, calm by nature and also level-headed like her hyper-active husband, has always known the man she got married to, since she happens to be his first cousin. She speaks of him with an obvious admiration.
According to her , the stunning acceleration of his career, especially during the past three years can be summed up by a constant absence that alternates between his business trips, and the presence of a stream of counterparts cum friends gathering either to discuss business or to celebrate a victory, or simply, quiet evenings when the young head of family relaxes in silence after having talked, discussed and listened a whole day... Evenings like this, after a simple meal, little Melissa Nour is the only princess to be listened to while she describes her day at school to her loving father, a nursery school in which she has completely adapted to, just like a true "khalifan"...The child, so they say, resembles the father: advanced for her age, studious and... malicious.

"This sense of humor is undoubtedly a sort of modesty" explains her aunt, Djaouida Jazaerli. " Moumen is in reality a shy person.".
Overcome by shyness at times, he may easily be mistaken of being cold, since his face reveals no emotion, "he accumulates a lot of hammering", says his wife. Khalifa is a passionate. And with his light spirit, to crack a joke on whatever subject in discussion, it is not hard to recognize that this is a brilliant man, yet constantly agitated.
"He is a creator", continues Hania Khalifa. " He is constantly moving or changing. If he was not submerged by the daily management at Khalifa Airways, he would have by now launched other new projects... But with him, we are surprised all the time !"
The young woman remembers the day her husband already head of a flourishing pharmaceutical company arrived at home saying: "Look, l am going to open a bank !" She laughs: " I thought he had gone crazy. And when he decides to create an airline company, she looks up again in the sky... to watch the first take off, destination Oran.
A success that Hania - like all close counterparts and friends - believe is due to Rafik Khalifa´s distinguished competence: "He is a vivacious man, endowed with extreme intelligence and with an exceptional memory."
" His culture is astonishingly vast but he reveals it allusively," adds Amel Benouniche, who is the Communication Manager of Khalifa Airways, and knows him since 1996. But when he has a subject in mind, he will search for all information concerning it. And he retains it all ! For example, when we opened the line linking Algiers to Dubai, he gave us a full detailed lecture about the Emirates, as though he had been born there !"
Not a surprise because "Moumen", as friends call him, has difficulties to disconnect himself from work. "l have the impression that he works even while sleeping", explains his wife. "With his calm nature, he is forever thinking. Even when we have the impression that he ´s not listening, he registers everything. Especially when I am talking to him about his daughter, whom he loves dearly", adds proudly the young mother.
Nothing intimidating, nevertheless, in the young magnate so redoubtably bright. On the contrary, Rafik Khalifa is one of those men who at times gives the impression of not taking any matter seriously - starting with himself. But you should never make a mistake, he is a boss who controls everything, all the time.
"He is not able to delegate", explains his wife.
"When he was mixing the preparations for the pharmacy, he was the same person repairing the apparatus, yet he was disposed of qualified technicians to carry out this. When he opened the first banking agency, it was him decorating. And when he created Khalifa Airlines, he designed the condor on the logo and chose the uniform for the
personnel..."
Her husband protests: " At Khalifa, all heads of departments have full autonomy. l only intervene when the decisions to be taken concern several structures of the group".

Rafik Khalifa believes in working, and luckily, at work, he is surrounded by the family and good old friends. A small group of buddies he cannot do without, who often invade his apartment in Paris or his house in Algiers for impromptu dinners. They are the first ones to be invited whenever he rents a lodge in a stadium.
The close entourage gives him confidence and protective warmth, and he will strongly defend them, help them and galvanize this "family" which includes his employees. "It is as simple as that: he does not see any obstacle at all, remains composed all the time," says Abel Benouniche. "Even when facing a situation which appears completely blocked, he keeps on repeating "don´t worry, we shall find a way
out." And what is more striking is that, he generally finds one! With him, nobody knows what is coming next... He is a visionary." "He is an optimist", this is the only word to describe him, says the lawyer Djaouida Jazaerli. Sakina Taibi, the Manager of Khalifa Airlines for Algeria, and a member of the "old guard", because she participated in the creation of the bank, she indicates: " He never reasons like others. He is forever miles ahead".

A typical and non-conventional profile expressed to the tiniest detail. Any exterior sign of wealth ? A Jaguar that barely leaves the garage. But it is pointless to look for a Rolex on his wrist, a Mont Blanc fountain pen in the pocket, a Dupont cigarette lighter or the latest Motorola. Like most men who are their own masters, better than being enslaved, Rafik Khalifa never wears a watch. Not even a lighter or a brief-case and not in the least, a cellular telephone...
"He borrows one from the first pal he meets in the morning and keeps it for the day !", one of his advisers retorts laughingly.

Rafik Khalifa moves faster than time... without being jostled. He has the agility of a big cat - soft, controlled, capable of quick relaxation and of taking sharp bites even when he appears round shouldered. And like Alice in the Wonderland, he appears and disappears rapidly leaving one perplexed...
His other character, explaining his success in different fields from pharmaceutical industry to banking, aviation or catering: he simply enjoys knowing how things work.

" Even before creating Khalifa Airlines, as soon as we stepped in a plane, he was already explaining how everything would function", says Hania Khalifa. He understands rapidly the mechanism of different functions... Spending a day in the factory simply makes him happy".
With such a strong personality, it is not surprising that he is an owner of a group of companies which he controls and understands each machinery in details, having planted them himself. His nine thousand employees - entirely devoted to him and in return, he consecrates a lot of energy to improve their welfare.
This passion mixed with an inborn discipline, the spirit of a leading contractor propelled by sincere and clear patriotism, always thirsty for some more, and strengthened by his astonishing sense of responsibility in a man so young. Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa has inherited them for a man whose exploits had rocked his youth and the strictness had guided his intellectual development. A man who was also a pioneer a of modern Algeria, in his own way. A man whose political and social choices may have looked diametrically different from those of Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa, yet he has been inspired by his ethical conduct. He achieved power and prestige right to the top, yet he was driven to prison for two years. A man whose itinerary with ups and downs, his ideals and his patriotism was the secret force behind this young head of companies.
His father, Laroussi Khalifa.

Laroussi Khalifa:one of the founders
of a modern Algeria

Khelifa family - the true patronymic spelled this way - originates from El Oued, in southern part of Algeria, which is an oasis with one thousand cupolas in the middle of vast fine sand and mirages..
The great grand-father of Rafik Khalifa was quite a wealthy date merchant. One of his sons, Mohamed El Aïd El Khalifa, the first leading member of this family - a big writer, whose works and poems are still being studied even today in secondary schools.
The writer is quite close to the Ulemas, the Algerian nationalist and anti - colonialist movement that preached a reformist Islam and
emancipation of Muslims during the period between the two world wars. They are the ones who widespread the famous slogan "Arabic is my language, Algeria is my country, Islam is my religion". One of his brothers - therefore, great-uncle of Rafik Khalifa, is equally close to the collaborator of Cheikh Abdelhamid Ben Badis (born in Constantine in 1899), who headed the delegation of Ulema Movement to Paris in 1936, when Leon Blum was head of government.
The grand - father of Rafik Abdelmoumen, a merchant like his own father is a severe person. Proud of school results of his son Laroussi, yet he decides with an advice from a friend that he should become a sailor. The eleven year old child has never been to the city nor seen the sea. Accompanied by an uncle, they travel by train to Algiers... As soon as he arrives, he is provided with a small sailing kit and a hammock. His first night is terrible: Used to sleeping on a mattress, he falls off and on the hammock, and when he finally falls asleep, he is soon woken up by the laughter of his comrades. They tease him of being " a greenhorn", thrown into water although they cannot swim, and they are only fished out when they are almost drowning. A cruel game hard to overcome...
The young Laroussi Khalifa will not be a sailor. At the age of 15, he gets a bursary to continue his studies in France - a rare thing for an Algerian at that time. A bright student, he collects degrees one after another: Agronomic Engineer, a master degree in Sciences and Political Sciences. In 1952, he is decorated as the youngest professor at the Agricultural School of Versailles.
In 1955, when he had just been appointed as sub-prefect of France by decree, the revolution recalls him to join a newly formed clandestine government not in Algeria but in the Maghreb. The young intellectual joins Sheikh Mohamed Kheireddine, the Ambassador of GPRA- (Provisional Government of the Republic of Algeria) and a member of the Movement of Ulemas, who had been his master in Koranic School, but now operating in Morocco. The Sheik introduces him to Colonel Boussouf, Commisioner of the 5th Wilaya, a man he will second as deputy later on, working for the Algerian Secret Services.
In 1957, during the installation of the first GPRA (Provisional Government of Republic of Algeria) Colonel Boussouf is appointed Minister for War and Liaison (assembling the armaments and the secret service). Laroussi Khalifa becomes his Permanent Secretary. Shadow man, he becomes part of the secret fighters for Independence. During the war, he travels from Morocco to Tunisia, from Tunisia to Libya, by passing through Algeria with false identities - his daughter Hafida still conserves his multiple passports of a clandestine fighter.
Between 1955 and 1962, his family lost his contact. Later on, his three children will be profoundly marked by the story of this heroic period...
" He was Pancho Villa!" Rafik Abdelmoumen jokes before correcting seriously that if his father fought in Oran region, he was more or less specialized in security intelligence.
It is Laroussi Khalifa who sets up the Algerian Secret Service. Up to 1962, he was the general secretary of MALG, the ancestor of ministry for Defense. At the independence in 1962, Ahmed Ben Bella gave him a more strategically placed post in his government as a minister for Energy and Industry.
But very soon, Laroussi Khalifa realizes that his views are opposed to the Socialist policy applied by the government. He is the only one to resign among the ministers of this government led by Ben Bella.
In 1964, he is however appointed as the Ambassador of Algeria in London. He has just married Farida Kebache, the eldest of a family of seven sisters and two brothers. She is from an industrial and merchant family of Bejaïa, the ancient Bougie, the main capital of this small Kabylia. The grandfather had a rope-soled sandal (espadrille) factory; her father and uncles were working in import-export. During the war, the father was a representative of Moulins de Larache. One of his uncles was arrested and condemned to death in 1954 and was liberated only after the war. He became the first mayor of Bejaïa.
The family estate - includes boutiques, bathing moors, bakery - which were nationalized at the independence. At the time of the wedding, her father was managing one of the three factories manufacturing socks in the country, Algerian Hoisery Company.
Contrary to most women at that time, Farida Kebache was well brought up. In this cultivated and patriotic family, girls are also going to school and taking piano lessons. If she only reached school certificate level, it is because she had joined the secondary school mutiny in 1958. Brilliant, intellectual, politicized, refined, at ease in society life, she perfectly integrates in her husband ´s universe - her younger sisters and brothers had always respected her and because of her seriousness and dignity, that they had nick-named her, "the great lady".

In 1965, Laroussi Khalifa is appointed Managing Director of Air Algeria by Houari Boumediene. But he rejects the policies advocated by his ancient fighting companions to an extent that he is suspected of having participated directly in the abortive coup d´état led by the Chief of Staff, Colonel Tahar Zbiri, who has no alternative but to flee the country for exile ; Laroussi is condemned and jailed for two years by the military tribunal in Oran for subversion from 1967 to 1969. Hafida Khalifa has a painful souvenir of this period. "At school, l was saying that father had gone to work", she recalls. She discovered later on, that those terrible years were also quite fruitful in a way, reading fantastic poems written in a form of letters which the prisoner addressed to the family regularly...

When his father was condemned, Rafik Abdelmoumen was only one year old... Born on October 1st, 1966 in Bejaïa - his mother had returned purposely from London to give birth at the family stronghold, which is also her birth place - he is the youngest of the three children. His mother spoiled him as they often do with the last born, and even more tenderly because this baby with black eyes comforted her in the absence of the father...
The child is three years old when he finally gets to know his father who is weak, sick, bruised not only by imprisonment, but even more by the political choice of his country...
One day - this little boy will revenge in a triumph, but he is not yet aware of it. A success that came in too late for his father to witness, he passed away in 1991. But his clan is bound to have the impression of a life story being repeated once again, like in those hectic years when the father heavily contributed to build the future for his compatriots... his sister Hafida remarks.
In 1969, when he was released from prison, Laroussi definitely realizes that he has been completely excluded from the nomenklatura, where he is no longer recognized. All doors shut around him, his friends no longer know him, his ancient fighting companions can do nothing to help him.
But he has a family to feed and to overcome this, he decides with courage to go back to studies in the university at the age of forty eight years. In 1971, he graduates rapidly due to the equivalence giving him extra credits in advance, he opens a pharmacy at Cheraga, on the outskirts of Algiers. Until his death, Laroussi Khalifa never went back to politics. He was satisfied taking care of his family in a dignified and efficient manner as well as the well-being of his countrymen, and looking after the education of his three children whose indication of intelligence was promising.

"One day, l shall own a company",
a child dreaming to be a leader

The period spent in the wilderness, as Hafida, the eldest sister of Rafik Abdelmoumen recalls, was tranquil and a happy one - until their father fell into long illness from which he never recovered.
At this period, Cheraga resembled more of a village than a small town, and was a place where everyone knew one another. The paternal pharmacy is right in the middle, next to the central square, where cows still cross today. The Khalifa family lives at Hydra, in a colonial style house,with a big garden full of flowers and old trees, surrounded by a wall not that high, and a small swimming pool for refreshing oneself during burning hot summer days. It is situated in an elegant characteristic residential borough, right on the on the slopes of Algiers.
The Khalifa family is living comfortably well with an income regenerated from their pharmacy in Cheraga, and Laroussi Khalifa has every reason to be proud: far from power, he became a self-made-man. An intellectual like his father and his uncle - the renowned Mohamed El Aïd Khalifa, he is strictly taking care of the education of his children. A studious atmosphere reigned in this house and competition mood was perpetual, remembers Halida Khalifa.
"We could be asked to solve a maths problem or recite a poem at any time... My father always pushed us to look deep right in the bottom of the matter."
The three children had microscopes at their disposal for "works" supervised by their father. During summer holidays they were already preparing the program for the following year. Permission to go out was only given once the home-work was done, or later on, when everything was cleared at the pharmacy. Mrs Khalifa, with her calm and distinguished nature, despite the difficulties she had endured, did make sure that all went well in this strict atmosphere, that nobody raised his voice and that there was a mutual respect towards one another... The grandmother Khalifa, who lives with them, is a dignified presence and a little bit enigmatical, adored by his eldest son, who ensures that all is well with her and she equally watches over him.

The three kids are bright pupils, Moumen particularly distinguished by his tenacity and his judging capacity. "He was a bright kid - just like our brother Lakhdar", relates Hafida. "Excellent in chess, mischievous, mocking at every situation, even tragic ones, very irritating at times !" He was the only one who dared face his father ; as a teenager, he would criticize his political views, and this made them argue a lot, creating a heated atmosphere in the house.
He loves playing with words. Since childhood, he was creating his own vocabulary, inventing neologisms or lashing out expressions, adopted immediately by the rest of the family, just like a personal code, which his close collaborators seem to have adopted today as a recognition sign, that normally exists within tribal groups.

Moumen is a book-worm. His sister remembers having seen him wake up at six in the morning, to devour pages of encyclopedia. On Sundays, he had rather lock himself in a room and read than go to the beach. However, he is not a dazing intellectual. He knows exactly what he wants and how to reach his ultimate goal: he reads, learns, understands the mechanism, memorizes, gets absolutely curious at every aspect...In two hours, he reads through and picks out the elements needed and transmits them proudly to his sister.
"As a child, he kept on swearing that he would one day create his own company, " RJM Company". He scribbled everywhere, and even on my note books, a car with initials RJM, this annoyed me terribly!", remembers his eldest sister.
Brilliant, undisciplined and with his teenage arrogance, he becomes quite scornful at times. Moumen is also kind and cherishes friendship, a happy-go-lucky, always out with friends...To such an extent that we used to wonder whether he would succeed in his exams. His sister, very methodical, was doubting his carelessness and his last minute cramming. He is not hard working, but his excellent memory enables him to pass his examinations after having revised only two days before.
Up to the age of thirteen, Rafik Khalifa frequented Saint-Charles Catholic School, under the strict Jesuits - "all the decision -makers of this generation frequented the Fathers", he points out this today. He then joined Fundamental School, a public institution specialized in mathematics.
His father becomes ill and this changes his life. Somebody has to take care of the family pharmacy, not his elder brother Lakhdar, the artist. All he wants is to be an architect, and he becomes one... He looks after the family residence at Hydra.
If it is not Lakhdar, then it will have to be Hafida. The young girl duly starts her studies in pharmacy, she enjoys it too. But her marriage takes her far away from Algiers. She moves to Tangier with her husband.
The only alternative remaining is Moumen. At the age of sixteen, he accepts his responsibilities, but continues his A-Level studies in science, then he studies pharmacy at the University of Algiers, where he obtains a doctorate degree, takes care of the family establishment, replacing the sick father. He knows already that he will not remain there, but before making his RJM Company dreams come true, he has to take care of his own family.

His father passed away in 1990. Rafik Khalifa becomes head of this family. He is twenty five and very ambitious. His father ´s dream of a progressive Algeria, where each would profit from the development of modernity is also his belief. But he is aware that he would contribute to it by using other methods. Things are moving in the country and there will be soon occasions to be seized. Despite the beginning of disturbance in
Algeria - in June 1990, the lslamic Salvation Front wins both municipal and communal elections and it is the first time that free balloting system is introduced in the country since independence - another big change although less bloody affects the nation: President Chadli Bendjedid who had succeeded Houari Boumediene in 1979, starts in 1988 the processing of economical reforms parallel to political ones, allowing multiparty system. Algeria begins moving ahead towards the free market economy. Rafik Khalifa jumps higher than the rest...

But even brilliant and ambitious young men have a life to live, yet their success, as history often reveals, depends on the companion they have chosen.
He is twenty four. She is eighteen. They are first cousins, from his mother´s side. Daughter of one of the first pharmacists in Algeria - he started practicing in 1953 - she is following his footsteps and she is therefore enrolled to study pharmacy.
After years of complicity, they got married in December 1995, Hania continues with her studies and the young husband, at this moment, is not considered just as a simple pharmacist in Cheraga, he is dedicated to this comfortable family life but remains discreet.
First stage: the paternal dispensary was completely modified from top to bottom. This was going to become a launching platform for Rafik Khalifa´s stupefying ascension.

II-The Khalifa Group: a force to be reckoned with

In a matter of ten years, Rafik Khalifa moved from pharmacy to banking and from banking to aviation, placing strategically these brilliant redeployments. Henceforth, he is the leading private employer in Algeria. A model career that only his true talent and obstinacy helped him come through the administrative bureaucracy, in a country newly converted to free market economy.

.

KRG Pharma: A pharmaceutical company
for the well - being of the Algerians

Had to become a pharmacist: once upon a time in Cheraga

Auto-medication addicts, the Algerians would rather consult a pharmacist than go to a doctor. The budget put aside for medicine is quite big compared to the rest. And like most of their compatriots, the inhabitants of Cheraga frequent assiduously the Khalifa establishment... Where they spend a substantial amount of money.
He is not charging them expensively, it is the cost of medicine that is very high: not surprising at all, since 80% is imported and only a small percentage is manufactured locally by factories belonging to the State, but the sick often prefer "French products" when they are available. How many times does he have to shake his head sincerely sorry saying: "we don ´t have any more"?
To import them himself ? This is out of question."Even the idea horrifies him", discloses his wife. He has never done it, yet others have a tendency of opting for this easy solution. But my husband prefers the most difficult one...

Rafik Khalifa saw the best he could make out of the situation. Some of the most essential products are very easy to manufacture.
Like most of his colleagues, he is used to making what they call "preparations". But his goal is to move even further to industrial side and to produce Algerian-made medicine, at a lower price yet as efficient as its foreign equivalent.

Since the administrative and financing marketing procedures are far too complicated, Rafik Khalifa opted to importing the essential components for pharmaceutical products in order to create the first elements necessary for the production of generic products in the country.

He knows quite well that the clients will have preference for " French and not local". Whatever comes, he has decided to plunge deep down into the water, in other words, he is crossing the Mediterranean...

At the beginning, KRG Pharma (for Khalifa Raymond Gabriel, his partners in France) was small, almost derisory. In 1991, Rafik Khalifa is twenty five years old, full of ideas but without enough finance to go it alone. He decides to come to France, armed with his convictions. He convinces a pharmaceutical raw material retail - trader and a package manufacturer to provide him with goods in advance without any payment at all to start with.

His first products are manufactured in the back room of the family´s pharmacy in Cheraga - a generic version of Mercryl, followed soon by a set of basic products relatively easy to make: calcium, magnesium in syrup, coughing syrup, vitamin C, poly-vitamin, paracetamol tablets...
When he started to produce collyrium, his eyes were constantly red.This was a result of trying these drops in his own eyes !", relates Hania Khalifa.
Today, the anecdote makes him laugh. But it was an extremely difficult period for the young couple.
The operation by KRG Pharma is not very clear legal-wise, since there is no private pharmaceutical production in Algeria, the PMP notion (Permission to Market a Product) is therefore non-existent. However, the absence of this notion cannot stop KRG Pharma producing.
The ambiguousness of the situation has generated endless bothersome administrative aspects. Khalifa spends most of his time running up and down the corridors of the Ministry for Health. He sleeps there almost, recalls Hania. He knows that he is acting perfectly right, and he is manufacturing standard products and he has the right to do so. But he wants them to come and control.
The pharmacist finally obtains the agreement N° 001 from the Ministry for Health after a long struggle and henceforth opening the path for those to come after him. Through his spadework, a structure allowing the attribution of the PMP will soon be fixed. Rafik Khalifa has also in this manner founded the Algerian Pharmaceutical Industry. Of course, he now understands at the tip of his fingers how the Algerian administration works. A knowledge that would be useful to him soon. When launching the production of medicine, Rafik Khalifa knows exactly where he is heading to. He always knew. Like his father, "a visionary", he says today, who used to keep on repeating: "You have to anticipate".
Rafik Khalifa anticipates. He will not need to wait that long. During all this time, KRG Pharma was expanding. Rafik Khalifa decides that it should be better now setting up his laboratory in France, where there are machines, raw materials and packaging. He puts up a small production unit at Poissy in the Parisian suburbs, employing only five or six people at the beginning (it has since then moved to Vitrolles). The production is not only sold at the dispensary in Cheraga, but all over the country, through a network of pharmacy wholesalers - a sector also created when the economy was eased in 1988 - making the generation of Khalifa pioneers of this new profession in their own way.

Khalifa ´s headaches are never over. When the Ministry for Health is not imposing its kafkaesque regulations, it is the banks opposing the slowness and the irksome aspects of administration. Paying a supplier overseas is an assault course and those supplying KRG Pharma locally become impatient too, calling the company with rage...
How can you explain to them that the banking sector in Algeria is still controlled by the State and that it is so out-dated, that most of their clients don ´t dispose of cheque books, that the loans are accepted or refused without any apparent reason and that the idea of a credit card is like a story from science-fiction ?
But good things don ´t come easily. Especially when you are Rafik Khalifa.
The young manufacturer spends as much as half of his time at the bank and the other half, running up and down for official documents, that he has ended by grasping the most subtle administrative machinery.
And the more he frequented his bankers, the more their relationship changed to friendship... He had carefully studied how the state banks functioned and the short-comings of their systems. He had analyzed it and knew exactly what had to be done.

" Look: l am going to open a bank", one day he announces this to his wife. She thinks immediately that he has gone crazy. How can a chemist become a banker, even if he has been successful in creating a flourishing company?
There will be no miracle. Simply a capital to start with, provided by KRG Pharma, an office in Cheraga and a few friends convinced by this young man, just turned thirty - but very much ahead of his time.
Not a miracle. Simply a visionary who has only one idea in mind: to drive his country humanly into a modern world through economy.

El Khalifa Bank: the first Private Bank in the country

Efficiency, modernity, proximity
Create a bank for the people

When conceiving El Khalifa Bank, Rafik Abdelmoumen Khalifa already had a very precise idea in mind.
To make money ? Why not ? But to continue developing further a country he loves profoundly.

All doors leading to free market trade are being opened in Algeria. He knows that soon the creation of private banks will be authorized and he wants to create a modern, efficient bank which listens to its clientele. A bank less complicated for the consumers, with branches to be opened throughout the country. A bank nearby, where each individual will be considered as a respected interlocutor.
A bank for the people.

It is evident that there is a true need. A sincere thirst for modernity. In Algeria, it is true, there are cheque books, but they are not being used. Why won ´t they use them? Shops don ´t accept them. Djaouida Jazaerli recalls that when she was an assistant lecturer at the faculty in Algiers, her only cheque book lasted from 1976 to 1984. And for banking credit cards, they simply don ´t exist. Opening an account, obtain a loan? Not often easy. Some times, impossible, simply because of lacking banking facilities within the proximity.
Rafik Khalifa wants a big bank for the people. A bank with branches in any town and in any village. Where everybody can open an account. With smiling faces at the counter and not the look of a public service worker behind a hygiaphone counter. A bank with service for clients. Unknown in Algeria...

KRG Pharma experience helped him a lot, opening his eyes to dismiss certain mysteries in business. He knows how to mastermind a company, to be a leader of a team, to arrange financial operations, to obtain necessary authorizations. His plans to open a bank were already advanced long before the easing of trade restrictions for the banking sector.

The first agency is to be in Cheraga, simply for sentimental reasons: It is situated at 200 meters from the familial pharmacy.
Rafik Khalifa has already rented premises, started works, designed the logo. He recruits the hard core to become his collaborators, the pioneers of the future Khalifa Group.
Sakina Taibi is part of it. Women were in charge of several key posts in his companies right from the beginning. To begin with, his own wife seconds him at KRG Pharma. Rafik Khalifa, not somebody to be considered as a Mediterranean macho, knows that a trust-worthy lady is more precious than one or two men. Luckily, the socialist authorities did not interfere with their education.
Mrs. Taibi who is the actual Manager of Khalifa Airways for Algeria, was one of the spokeswoman of the section that dealt with private firms at the Ministry for Finance. When Rafik Khalifa proposed to her to join his little group of four or five people whose mission was to create a future bank, she immediately seized the opportunity."To me, Rafik Khalifa was the embodiment of a new private contractor whom l had to support, precisely up to success. His self-assurance, confidence convinced me. l believed in his project, we all believed in it. It was an opportunity to cross the barrier..."
The young lady is in charge of getting the approvals from the ministry. And again, the process is generally slowed down by
procedures which can be bureaucratic, until comes a providential chance, like Rafik Khalifa has missed three flights successively which can sometime unblock the situation.
The fourth one is the best. He finds himself seated next to a high ranking civil servant in the plane. And this is a man who can actually give this famous approval. With no doubt, Khalifa seizes this opportunity explaining in details his project, he actually convinces him. The business is concluded and the approval is signed when they land.
The bank got the constitutional permit delivered by "Money and Credit Committee" dated March 28, 1998: It was approved by the Bank of Algeria the same year in July.
The mother agency of El Khalifa Bank opens to the public in September and the boss becomes a father too, for the first time. "It is a common say here, that the first house or the first child brings chance", Hania Khalifa smiles. "It appears like it was the case !"

The success: 60 Agencies, 20% of market share

The success of the new bank is astonishing, but can be explained easily, according to Djaouida Jazaerli: "Algeria is not a poor country. What has brought in poverty is the management of its resources. Once trade restrictions are eased, why should there be no money? And when a bank is hospitable to its clients, listens to them, offers them proposals, gives them access to recent technology, why do you expect it not to work ? Algerian consumers needed a change. El Khalifa Bank responded".

The clientele rushed in very quickly and spontaneously. House-keepers, professionals, students, SAE (Small & Average Enterprise), SAI [Small & Average Industry] - pharmacists who were particularly welcomed with comprehension by their ancient colleague... This includes all the middle class, eager for improvement and consumption, rushing in to the new establishments.
For the launching, El Khalifa decided that investment procedures would be simple. And thus, to import goods to Algeria, one needs a domiciliation in a bank. State Banks often denied the approval to those seeking to import goods without any valid reason, regardless whether a businessman had necessary funds. "Myself, l have accepted everything !" Rafik Khalifa claims. He still remembers his first "domiciliation": from a man who wanted to import beer.

From there on, everything moved fast. Other branches of El Khalifa Bank were opened in Algiers. More experienced bankers are recruited or they present themselves spontaneously, proposing their experience, to try a private sector after twenty or twenty five years spent in the public sector: this is definitely a good proof, trusting a man so young, who impresses them by his seriousness, his analytical sense and his foresight for the future. Rafik Khalifa has also a young team around him, recruited mainly for their trustworthiness and their competence. In return, he proposes them a training, a promise he fulfills without failure.

There is less competition in the line he has chosen: the four other banks created approximately at the same time are concentrating mainly on business clientele. Ossified state banks cannot compete with the warm welcome Khalifa personnel reserves to their clients nor the efficiency of his services.
In the year 2001, Khalifa Bank represents 50% of the total activity of the group, in other words a turnover beyond 400 million dollars. Being the first private bank, it covers 20% of market share for banking operations in the country.
The bank has 60 branches spread throughout the territory. It displays a complete range of banking services at the counters in the banks of proximity, destined to a modern consumer, and at their disposal, the clients can have: cheques books available on request, immediate transfers, credit cards...They are moreover the first ones to be issued by an African bank on the Continent. The El Khalifa Bank has just equipped Algerian stores with terminals permitting them to call the bank for prior approval for payments with credit cards and he is working on setting up a complete automatic system. This is a true revolution in the mentality of a country where they believe in paying with cash...
Facing the stakes of a market at its highest growth, El Khalifa Bank intends to confirm its position as a major operator by setting a development policy aiming to give El Khalifa Bank an international dimension.
The next step, the most natural one: opening agencies in France at the service of the Algerian community. The Bank ´s argument is very simple: Algerians living in France may put their money at any time of the year in Algeria and in France, without taking risks. The transfers in French Francs (soon in Euros) and Dinars are simplified the same way as a credit card is attributed.
But El Khalifa Bank is now steering even further, as the path appears extremely juicy. And with the growing appetite, it recently proposed a joint - venture with a German bank, the Erste Rosenheimer Private Bank, in Munich.
Another step forward, moving quickly into internationalization for a group which was founded only ten years ago. In other words, a take off.

Khalifa Airways
The first aeronautical operator in Algeria

Clear skies: Algeria is free, at last

To create an airline company ?
This is an old dream, Rafik Khalifa has always had a passion for aviation, it is an old dream which is no longer a dream, it is a project, most probably conceived at the same time as that of the bank.
According to him, efficiency in banking and transportation system underlines the height of development in a modern society. And an aviation company cannot only be a window-screen of a country, but a its unofficial ambassador as well.
For ever thirsty for more, looking for new areas to plough, Rafik Khalifa is seeking for labour. He knows that soon the Algerian skies will be opened to private sector. He is aware too, that Air Algeria, the national company cannot satisfy the needs of his 30 million compatriots - without counting the two million Algerians nationals or Franco-Algerians living in France, who go back home periodically on holidays.
He estimates the Franco - Algerian market at 1,4 million passengers par year.
If there is anything to hinder the conquest of the immense clientele on this side and on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, it is the difficulty Algerians face to obtain visas. A difficulty doubled by the impossibility to obtain air tickets at certain periods of the year.
Air Algeria with its timeworn fleet conserve the monopoly of air transportation since 1963, and with their out-dated systems, they are completely inapt to adapt to the needs of a population they are supposed to serve. Impossible to make a reservation through a travel agency: the only ones to have this right are the Air Algeria agencies and at times, one is forced to queue up for hours, notably before holidays.
To telephone ? All lines are invariably saturated and one can hold on, on a line for almost one hour before getting an answer.
And besides, since an Airbus of Air France was hijacked by Algerian terrorists in 1994, ending up with the execution of three passengers and with the death of the four pirates after the assault of G.I.G.N, the French national airline has ever since deserted Algeria. Four daily flights by Air Algeria from Paris is not enough for the big demand. Most of the time, one is forced to transit via Belgium or Tunisia in order to reach the country.

How can one not seize such an opportunity ? Khalifa Airways which is 100% subsidiary of Khalifa Group is constituted of ; Rafik Khalifa, the only shareholder with 100% shares.
Thanks to the success of KRG Pharma and El Khalifa Bank, Rafik Khalifa therefore disposes of a flowing turnover sufficient to proceed to a new strategic redeployment. The young Managing Director applies this rare method than re-orienting to his original profession or to one with systematical diversification.
On the contrary, in a strategic redeployment, the Managing Director proceeds from the nearest efficient pole to a redeployment of his forces into a sector very close to his own, in order to avoid starting the process from the initial apprenticeship of his company - moreover, today the pioneers at El Khalifa Bank consider that Khalifa Airways members of staff had an easier life, because they had laid down the stone work for them!
The process is undoubtedly courageous: the aviation is a sector
of a low profitability at the beginning and it requires heavy investment, high technical nature and highly qualified personnel. And again, those around him would protest in vain, like in many other circumstances when he spells out his intentions. "I told him: wait for a while until we complete the bank !" his collaborator Sakina Taibi relates. "But his announcements are often made when all his appointments have already been taken".

"The cart before the horse", could be the story of his life!, one of his advisers jokes. A system of unshakeable optimism which has so far made proofs...
Rafik Khalifa is completely convinced that he will obtain the approval immediately after the government eases restrictions for the private airline sector, he is so eager to put his new baby on the road, that when taking his appointments with the aeronautical contractors, he is also hiring at the same time his first aircraft from Turkish Airways. While waiting for the authorization for the flight between Algiers and Oran, the Boeing 737 remains grounded for a period of three months.
" I was using it as a "corporate" implement for my trips", Rafik Khalifa puffs. "I flew alone with my Turks in this enormous aircraft !"

At long last, the long awaited law opening Algerian skies to the private sector is promulgated in June 1998. Khalifa Airways first aircraft painted in blue and white, illuminated by the condor, which is the symbol of the airline, takes off for Oran in August 1999... with a Turkish personnel who can only communicate with passengers in English. Just in time to celebrate the first birth anniversary of little Melissa Nour Djihane, who certainly brings luck to her daddy.

Financing a dream: An Airbus named Melissa

" Which is the best way to become a millionaire ? Start as a millionaire and create an airline company".
The joke repeated by Hania Khalifa was being narrated over and over within her husband´ s closest circle, when he was just about to become the first private aeronautical operator in Algeria...
The ancient mathematician has a passion for financial arrangements: it is finally what passions him the most intellectually. He knows how he has to proceed to set up a fleet.
Out of question to fiddle collecting very old tins, sold out at a low price by big Aviation companies, repaired and repainted quickly. Rafik Khalifa loves them beautiful and new. He certainly has no means of offering himself an aircraft paid cash on the nail. A "simple" ATR [Regional Transport Plane] with sixty eight seats costs 16,8 million dollars... El Khalifa Bank cannot allow itself to involve the new branch into such an investment.
The financial system Rafik Khalifa opts for is the so-called leasing, a sort of rental-buying at an industrial level. The rapid growth of his banking activities gives him credibility for this type of operation.
Instead of buying, this is renting an aircraft from an operational renter for a fixed period. It is the rental agency that orders from the constructor. As the renter makes big orders, he may obtain substantial discounts, which a small aviation company cannot claim.
This was the momentum for putting the first Airbus A 310-300 at the disposal of Khalifa Airways. At the construction Center in Toulouse, Rafik discovers a senior spokesman by the name of Patrice de Puymorin, " one of the daddies of Khalifa Airways", according to Sakina Taibi.
Rafik Khalifa follows with a lot of passion the delivery process up to the tiniest detail, even the painting of this big condor, the image had been chosen by him - not basing it on a specific theme, according to his wife. "When he designed it, he had no idea that it was a condor". The bird from the Andes with its three wingspan spread is definitely the biggest creature crossing the skies... It was perhaps a well thought intention, consciously or not by the high-spirited boss of Khalifa.
At last, the time to baptize the eldest aircraft of the fleet has arrived. No other name would be better than Melissa Nour Djihane. Melissa means "a bee" in Greek. Nour signifies "light" in Arab... Here we are, balancing in symbolism. A luminous bee, a pretty name for an aircraft flying across this sunny country...
The little godmother will not be on board for the inaugural flight of an aircraft which has more brothers and sisters today...
Khalifa Airways fleet is at the moment composed of thirty planes in which fifteen out of them are Airbus (A 310-300, A 319, A320, A 330-300, A 300 B4 Cargo), five Boeing 737, seven "ATR" (Regional Transport Aviation) for domestic flights, two Embraer 145 and a private Jet Challenger, destined to businessmen who often welcome prestigious passengers like Zinedine Zidane...
Seventeen out of thirty planes operating at the moment were obtained by leasing. The rest were bought: within a period of two years only of existence, moreover, Khalifa Airways is the second biggest Airbus purchaser on the African continent just behind Egyptair. The company recently made a spectacular order of eighteen Airbuses ; ten medium carriers and eight long-haul carriers to be delivered at the beginning of March 2004. A financing operation which Rafik Khalifa recently explained in the Jeune Afrique magazine: "We do not risk being ruined: we are self financing up to 15%, the rest to be borrowed from outside the Group".
The company is also awaiting the arrival of ten new seventy- two- seats ATR, deliverable in 2002. When purchasing, there is a clause on the invoice saying clearly that technicians are to be trained by the aircraft manufacturer in Toulouse. Always on the forefront for technology, ensuring the maintenance of the fleet in the most competent centers in Europe (Air France for the A 310, Air Littoral for the ATR and Lufthansa for the engines).

For a company so young, this is an amazing growth. But the clientele is following on the heel: 800 000 passengers in the year 2000, almost the double is expected in 2001, in other words, more than 20% of the airline transportation market with almost fully booked seats at around 75%...
A success based on the same excellent criteria which has brought popularity to El Khalifa Bank: modernity, efficiency and... simply, a smile as an extra asset.

With a smile on top: A company to serve the clients

Rafik Khalifa demonstrates a remarkable fitness on financial arrangements ; his know-how in marketing is equally admirable.
He mobilizes straight away all angles of marketing mix. Facing an ossified competition, he offers not only new aircrafts but a service second to none: respecting clients, respecting timetable, paying attention permanently even to the tiniest discomfort and politeness... That an inspector travelling incognito, periodically evaluates the standards. The smile of Khalifa Airways hostesses is so popular that the company has decided to use it as its slogan, "Algeria with a smile on top " - at times accompanied by pleasant gestures: for instance, last March 8th, which is the International Day for Women, all female passengers were graciously offered perfumes. We only hope that for the comfort of other travellers, they did not spray themselves at the same time... The initiative shows how much the company is inventing tirelessly to seduce and keep the clientele...
For the distribution, Khalifa Airways is installing warm and friendly counters. Through its affiliation to Amadeus network, it is finally offering modern systems for reservations to Algerian travellers, accessible in all travelling agencies. And the latest: the possibility to make reservations through their internet site. A veritable benediction for travelers who are no longer compelled to wait for hours in the agencies for Air Algeria... The clients have now the possibility of planning their air trips in a tranquil manner profiting of this new flexibility which has been implemented for the first time.
The fares are also part of this aggressive marketing policy. Tariffs for flights are 20% less expensive than those of the competitors. Apart from weekend packages at reduced prices (900 French Francs for less than two days stay), the company proposes promotional tariffs on special occasions like for Idd (festival to celebrate the end of Ramadhan], New Year and during the fasting period of Ramadhan. They even go as far as providing dates on its flights for those just breaking from fasting.

Another shrewd marketing strategy, when we know how heavily loaded Algerians travel back to their "bleds", carrying with them many consumer goods non available there: for its launching, Khalifa Airways applied fares largely lower than those of the competitor for the extra luggage.

And among others, like any modern airline operator, the company proposes to its frequent clients a customer loyalty and subscription program offering numerous privileges and particularly attractive reductions: accumulation of miles on flights can be converted to free tickets, if you have a Khalifa Plus Card.
At last, to mark the first anniversary of the company and -the second anniversary of little Miss Khalifa, an inflight magazine was launched in September 2000, having another reason to name it... Melissa Nour.. A good quality publication on glazed paper, with subjects of general interest as seen in its first edition, among them - a commentary on Casbah of Algiers, a walk around the Great Wall of China, a commentary on Internet, an interview with the automobile test pilot, Nassim Sidi Saïd, and a hommage to the immense and popular Algerian Cinema star, Mama Ourdia Hamitouche...

Beyond the horizon, faster, higher: The irresistible ascension of Khalifa Airways

In less than two years of existence, Khalifa Airways seems to have won the fight, opening Algerian skies to other private operators. But the battle has been ruthless and so it remains. Not easy in the present context, to conquer foreign routes when you are labelled as coming from a destination so-called by euphemism "sensitive". Not easy either, for new younger groups to challenge the big national companies comfortably settled, monopolizing with no intention of letting any young trouble makers disturb them from flying round...
For Rafik Khalifa, it is logical to attack the domestic market in the first place. A procedure which is more than necessary, because some parts of the country are not reached by Air Algeria, and travelling by car can therefore, be perilous in some regions...
The famous inaugural flight Algiers - Oran - Algiers has ever since been multiplied from one to six par day. Bechar, Gardaïa, Bejaia, Constantine and even further down to the south with Tamanrasset... The blue and white colours of Khalifa Airways cross the country making air transportation easy, even on relatively short flights.
But the biggest market remains that of the two million Algerian nationals or Franco-Algerians living in France today estimated to be 90% of the clientele coming from the Hexagon, the other 10% is composed of businessmen whose number is now increasing more and more in Algeria.

To get known by this potential clientele, Khalifa Airways is setting up a very different communication policy. Few advertisements in magazines but more posters in the underground stations of Paris, Marseilles and Lyon. Sponsoring raï music concerts, comical shows by young Algerian, movies and documentaries on Algeria and with a note more glamorous - the 2000 Miss Algeria of France beauty contest - organized by Acti-Pro - Top Model agency in Lyon, and broadcasted by the Algerian television... A strategy locally centered - the opening of each new route creates numerous promotional operations. Without forgetting two of the most important and most spectacular parts of this active communication strategy, which are: partnership with football clubs and implication in social, cultural and humanitarian actions.

If communication, thanks to Rafik Khalifa imagination, plus that of his team does not raise any problem, it is a very different case when the conquest of other international routes is concerned.And once again, the need for creating them really exists, yet obtaining such authorizations can be desperately long.
The first two destinations to France - Lyon and Marseilles linked by Khalifa Airways from Algiers, opened its doors on September 16th, 1999. As usual, it was Rafik Khalifa who had flown there first " to trace the route" in order to discover these airports.
This very day, at the Algiers airport, he discovers two hundred stranded passengers left by Air Algeria, among them women, babies and young kids....
No matter: he embarked everybody on board free of charge: omnibus for Marseilles, Lyon, Paris ! When the Aviation Board blames him to have transported passengers without an approval, he simply retorts: "But these are my friends !"
This anecdote, recounted in big laughter reflects a lot on his kindness, his sense of humour and his anti-conventional side... But the young man loses his smile when somebody crosses his path. For example, when he opened the route Algiers - Lyon and Algiers -Marseilles in 1999, he was aiming at serving Paris, Toulouse and then Lille the following year.
But on May 26th 2000, the date already advertised on huge posters for their first flights towards these new destinations, Khalifa Airways planes remained grounded. The DGAC (General Authority for Civil Aviation) had not approved the requested traffic rights, arguing that the quota for twelve weekly flights on the route France-Algeria (nine to Marseilles, three to Lyon) had already been granted to the company. Stories had it in the aviation world that either Air France had put pressure, thinking of reviving its flights to Algeria or Air Algeria did it, both of them worried by the success of their young competitor...
Another important argument by the DGAC was about security: since the Air France Airbus was hijacked between Algiers and Marseilles, they are meticulously strict on the security of flights considered as "sensitive".
Some of his collaborators were already giving up. But not him, Rafik Khalifa was obstinate. First of all, Toulouse: The Midi-Pyrenees region has many commercial exchanges with Algeria, mainly in pharmacy, farm-produce industry and oilfield equipment. On top of it, 24 000 Algerian nationals are living here. The young man decides to mobilize the local community and the Toulouse Chamber of Commerce. The Airport officials help him handle the administrative difficulties.
Finally, on May 26th 2000, the tenacity and optimism of Rafik Khalifa pays: Khalifa Airways Airbus A310-300 takes off from the pink city towards Oran. Mr Joseph Younes, the Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the White House is the guest of honour for the inaugural flight. He declares "that he is very enchanted by the warm welcome on board of this company" and proposes to congratulate his old friend, President Bouteflika for the opening of this new route, Oran - Toulouse- Oran.
At the beginning of August 2000, Spain is conquered too, with flights to Alicanta, Barcelona, and Palma of Marjoca. The Iberian officials had been approached at the same time as those of Great Britain, Italy, India and Syria, but they were the first ones to react favorably before everybody else.
At the same time, pushing his way to acquire more international destinations, the company continues to develop its domestic flights. A veritable cobweb has spun between Algiers, Oran, Bejaïa, Constantine, Bechar, El Oued, Tindouf, Adrar, Hassi Messaoud, Jijel, Djanet, Annaba, Ghardaia, Tamanrasset, Tiaret to cover all the territory... Some destinations less profitable had in fact been abandoned by Air Algeria, as was mentioned earlier. Khalifa Airways smaller planes, especially those ATR (Regional Transport Planes) acquired recently, allow them to ensure regular flights, with fares up to 25% lower than those of the national company, covering almost the whole of southern Algeria at 98%.
At the beginning of 2001, Khalifa bought his rival, the Antinea Airlines, promising to preserve the name and to take on board its 180 employees. A good deal which permits him to dispose of traffic rights for other destinations (Algiers-Lille or Marseilles-Constantine etc.) and to reinforce rapidly the fleet as well as the personnel.

It was on April, 2001 that the eighth international liaison for Khalifa Airways was inaugurated pompously: Dubaï
The company is the one hundred and first to obtain permission to operate in the smallest of the Emirates, nick-named "Venice of the Gulf". To be able to do business here when you are a foreigner, one needs to be proposed by an Emirate national ; the touring agency El Madjid Travel Agency, representative of Khalifa Airways acted as the intermediary.
This most liberal of the Gulf States, particularly fascinates Rafik Khalifa ; he sees in it what the airport of Algiers may become, one day... an average of 12,5 million passengers go through this airport annually ; it is one of the main hubs for airline transportation between the Far East and the European countries, plus a shopping destination famous world-wide because of its gigantic complex of tax-free malls, offering a luxurious range of products at unbeatable prices. A success very closely studied by this self-made Algerian, who was welcomed there by close relatives of El-Maktoub.

Despite a flowing success, there seem to be a constant pain like with a sour thorn itching the feet of the caretakers of Khalifa Airways: GDAC adamant refusal to grant them landing rights at the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, which in reality is denying them of one of the most profitable destinations, where half of the traffic between France and Algeria do transit. A blockage, which is a serious handicap for a potential international development of the company. Nevertheless, to ferry back stranded passengers left at Bejaïa by Aeris, a small French Charter Airline, the administrators did hire an aircraft belonging to Khalifa Airways. But instead of landing at Orly as convened, which could have probably provoked tensions, the poor castaways landed... in Lille, to get back into the capital later on, by bus.

Once more, the owner of Khalifa Airways bursts into laughter. He remains unshakably optimistic. To his collaborators hit by the slowness blocking them from conquering the capital right into the buzzing hive of their headquarters in Paris situated at Galvani street, he repeats laughingly, " wait and see, we shall get it!"
Simply hearing Rafik Khalifa reciting the immortal words by Rastignac, "Paris for both of us !" makes you believe it too.
While waiting to reach Montreal, New York, London, Milan, Frankfurt, Jeddah, Istanbul, Cairo and Casablanca very soon...

Feasting wings: Khalifa Catering

Successful stories are forever the same: a business man discovers that his demands are not being met to his satisfaction, decides that one can only be served best by himself...

This is in a way the beginning of Khalifa Catering, one of the latest creations of the Group.
One day, Rafik Khalifa on board in one of his aircrafts and accompanied by important invitees - among them the advertising executive, Jacques Seguela - waiting impatiently for the take off. Minutes multiply, then hours go by... Three hours waiting, simply because the meal trays were not acceptable and so refused... This is too much, Khalifa Airways proprietor asks the captain to take off. With no food on board, the passengers arrived at the destination... with the stomachs rambling!
"Never that again", decides Rafik Khalifa. He decides that buying ready-prepared meals cost far too much, and on top of it, "it is impossible to control the timing and quality". Henceforth, the time to launch Khalifa Catering has arrived...
As usual for him, the new activity has to meet welcome and quality criterias. He knows that his clientele is not often the wealthy one: "Most of them are happy to have a good meal in the plane", he specifies. And even during short flights, they are generously fed. "We prefer that they eat. Having eaten, they are not restless... It is when they are restless that they are likely to criticize!" jokes the young man.
It is with full stomachs and satisfied taste-buds that the travellers of Khalifa Airways arrive to their destinations. "Algeria, with a smile on top", like the company ´s slogan says, is also like that...

III - Rafik Khalifa: A sharing nature

The more I earn, the more it will be essential for me ethically to share with others", declares Rafik Khalifa.
An exemplary conduct conveyed by many courses of actions supporting humanitarian associations and... football teams. Because loving the round ball - a passion shared throughout the planet - crosses the boundaries. Just like planes.

A company for all:
Emphasis on human environment

Family spirit:
Consolidated group around a man

"It ´s him, the pillar of the group. He is the person"
Admittedly, it is his wife saying it, undoubtedly she is well placed to know as she has accompanied the developments since 1991...
When she speaks of him, describing a liberal man, by his sense of initiative and sharing wealth in a socialist manner. "He ´s somebody working not only for money but for the creation", continues Hania Khalifa. " Apart from that, if he would be asked for his shirt, he would give it away. His pleasure is to give pleasure".
A social sense, definitely inherited from his father, one of the founders of a socialist Algeria, whose choice he often disputed as an teenager. But from whom he got a sense of responsibility towards his family, his 9000 employees and the whole of his country.
This devotion has been rendered back to him. Thus, among the "ancient fighters" recruited at the creation of Khalifa Bank, not one of them left the company. On the contrary, this close guard has risen in hierarchy and are always concerned over the well-being of their boss. An informal warm team, always agitated by explosions bursting from different activities of the Khalifa Group...

Which does not stop its MD to be surrounded by a generation of managers in their thirties recruited in Algeria as well as French experts who have joined the management team. The group is being internationalized on the human side. Yet another victory for Rafik Khalifa is to prove that today, one can work with Algeria and in Algeria. That this country is not only the image the media generally gives. However, the sentence which is often repeated by his French partners or collaborators, very enchanted whenever they are invited by him to Algiers is: "We did not know that it was like this!".

It goes without saying that Khalifa has a family spirit. All the employees know that they can discuss personal problems with the boss. "Moumen feels in a way responsible for them and their families, the way it was when his father had fallen ill. He had taken care of his parents, his brother and sister...

Generosity question. No sentimentality. And also a question of efficiency. Rafik Khalifa, as a wise Managing Director, knows how to interest the collaborators in the company, not that he considers them as part of his property but by admitting to himself that he cannot be a winner alone for a long time without getting them involved too.
In short, that the logic of stockholders which generates profits only for the shareholders is not a lasting system. It is rather the logic of "stakeholders" which is doomed to end and become part of the system.
The stakeholders are not only shareholders, but equally employees, clients, suppliers, partners, administrations, in short the people surrounding the company get involved in it.
It is because of this deep reflection over economical and social stakes of his activity that Rafik Khalifa keeps believing on the initiative of sharing. Because all he wants is to work for his country.
And when a country is prosperous and peaceful, it is through the youth that it happens and we therefore need to give them hope...

Believing in the new generation: training campaign

Rafik Khalifa has always believed in the youth - Algerian population is composed of 75 % under twenty five years of age - and the youth in return believe in him. The middle class young Algerians - those born after 1970 - all of them dream of working for the one who has become an emblematic figure of success. Even the little Franco-North African are henceforth sending him many application letters, seeking employment....
Because he understands the social and psychological devastations of unemployment among his young compatriots, and because he believes in their desire to succeed in life. Nothing would stop Rafik Khalifa from training his troops.

When he was only a simple pharmacist in Cheraga, he had already recruited five young bursary holders picked up through an announcement to offer them pharmacy studies in Paris,
This will to educate has ever since been transformed into campaigns for permanent training.
When he created Khalifa Airways, he had sent the first hostesses for a training session on the outskirts of Paris. And for the pilots, initially he was forced to recruit them "fully trained". One hundred and eighty among them had left Air Algeria within two years to join Khalifa Airways, they had opted for this change because of the attractive professional environment provided, so they say, and then for the salary which was aligned on the French scale by Rafik Khalifa,who finds it odd and unfair that the same job should be paid less, as soon as one crosses over the Mediterranean Sea... One of his pilots, manifestly pleased with his choice, recently re-affirmed to a big Algerian daily newspaper of "having learnt in one year only at Khalifa Airways, a level of qualifications equivalent to fifteen years of career".