‘Halal Richard Branson’ is launchingBritain’s first Sharia airline

Firnas Airways CEO Kazi Shafiqur Rahman isproudly launching the sharia compliant airline company (Picture: Channel 4)

Bangladeshi-British businessman KaziShafiqur Rahman calls himself the Halal version of Richard Branson.

The 32-year-old says he has always dreamedof following in the footsteps of the Virgin boss and launch his own airline ?and he’s spotted a gap in the market.

He first dreamt up the idea of a shariacompliant airline while working to clean toilets at London’s City Airport. Nowhe is on the brink of launching Firnas Airways, compliant with the teachings ofIslam, with modest dress for cabin crew, Halal food, and strictly no alcohol onboard. He admits the sharia angle was originally a marketing ploy, aimed atgetting people to take notice ? and it worked.

But it also means something to Kazi,himself a Muslim who has experienced stigma when travelling.

‘Controversy sells. And as soon as youmention the word Muslim. everyone wants to hear,’ he says in documentary How toStart an Airline tonight on Channel 4.

‘All Muslims are loving it. But on theother hand you have the Islamophobic people.

‘When it comes to the hateful comments, itmakes you think, hang on. It makes you think about everything, about the wholeapproach.’

He added:’I am a British citizen butwhenever you pass through security you feel like you have done somethingwrong.’

Kazi Shafiqur Rahman with his jet (Picture:Channel 4)

Testing out thedriving seat (Picture: Channel 4)

The entrepreneurhopes to see Firnas Airways eventually fly long haul to the Middle East but tostart with the airline, which is leasing a 19 seater Jetstream 32 plane at acost of ?8,500 a month, will fly short haul commuter routes between UK cities.

His path to theskies hasn’t been easy ? as the documentary highlights.

Kazi arrived inthe UK with his family when he was 15 and he couldn’t speak a word of English.

Growing up ineast London, he wasn’t fussed about school, leaving with just one GCSE andworking a number of low pay jobs that he hated until he came across the vacancyat City Airport.

He did every jobthere imaginable, from catering to security to cleaning plane toilets but in2008, he was made redundant when the credit crunch hit.

He gets to gripswith the food and drink cart (Picture: Channel 4)

It may have beena blessing in disguise, as he set up a perfume business Sunnamusk with just?600 in his pocket, and now has five retail outlets across the country.

But planes waswhere his passion lay, telling the programme: ‘When I see a plane I get allexcited. It makes me happy.

‘I realisedmy passion when I saw a plane for the first time in my life.’

He says FirnasAirways ? which takes its name from Abbas Ibn Firnas, a Muslim inventor fromSpain who successfully attempted the first human flight in 875AD ? is now justmonths away from operating its first commercial flights.

Link->https://metro.co.uk/2018/06/13/halal-richard-branson-launching-britains-first-sharia-airline-7628632/