O'Maley Scholar Improves Airport and Airline Services Through Research

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When Ali Riza Karmali ('18, '20) recently described his job as an Air Service Development analyst to an Embry-Riddle class, it was a return for the double Eagle.

This time, he was speaking to Dr. Chunyan Yu’s Airline/Airport Relations class. But as one of the first recipients of the David B. O'Maley scholarship, he was on campus for the 2018 dedication of the David B. O'Maley College of Business in Daytona Beach. There, Karmali got to thank O'Maley personally.

“My scholarship made it possible for me to focus on academics, research projects and learning about the industry as a Business Eagle,” he says.

Part of learning about the industry involved talking to a counselor who used to work at United Airlines. “She told me there was something called Network Planning and Route Planning, which is working with airlines to plan routes,” he recalls. “I love numbers. I love travel. This sparked my interest in airline research.”

That interest has become his profession. Karmali is in his fourth year with the Marketing and Air Service Development Department at Orlando International Airport (MCO). He earlier held an internship position in Airport Operations at Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

Karmali says the Embry-Riddle brand helped him launch his career.

“At least 70% of the time, whenever I interviewed, the hiring manager was from Embry-Riddle or knew and hired people from Embry-Riddle,” he says. “The connection is huge. I bump into alumni everywhere. It is a small industry with a big pool of Embry-Riddle graduates in it.

A day in the office for Karmali at one of Florida's busiest airports is focused on assessing internal data for route opportunities and marketing MCO to various stakeholders to promote Orlando and its airport as a destination.

“I help with anything that presents Orlando as a better market,” Karmali says. “We pitch new, unserved routes. We field inquiries from international airlines across the world. In addition to airlines, we also deliver data to cruise lines, our convention center and economic chambers.”

One of the best parts of the job is attracting an international airline. Karmali says it's a rigorous and at times long process for an airline to commit to commercial operations on airport. It took five years to bring a specific lucrative and popular international market into committing service to MCO, and Karmali was involved in closing the deal.

“We prepared a rundown of how the passenger traffic would look for the airline and what types of people that airline could carry over to its markets. Two months later, we got the email that they were coming. It was really rewarding to see that.”