As head of sales and marketing at Arab Wings, Manal Obeid sells charter services for around 13 aircraft, including the G450, Legacy 650, Challenger 605 and King Air B200, strategically based across the Middle East region. Obeid views her workload as 90% sales, 5% marketing and 5% aircraft management. The aim is for each of the company's four sales people to focus on a particular type of client such as oil and gas companies, medical flights or managed aircraft.

Obeid used to work for a non-profit organisation before entering the aviation field with Arab Wings seven years ago. She says: "The aviation business is a separate and huge world – every day you learn something new and I always try to have good relationship with brokers, operators and manufacturers. I think if you don't go into this world you can't understand how it is." To get on in charter sales Obeid says it helps to be patient and presentable, respect all requests from the client, solve any problem and be able to work 24/7.

She finds that medical evacuations are always the most memorable tasks and of the job in general she says: "It's something like an addiction you can't get rid of – I think I enjoy my job!"

Deputy sales manager Dima Elayyan expands on the services offered by the Arab Wings sales department: "We sell block hours, work on lease agreements and invoicing, manage regular and new clients and aircraft owners' accounts, coordinate and follow-up medical or VIP flights with other related departments.

"We have our regular clients and we continuously seek new sales opportunities."

Elayyan graduated with a degree in business administration and joined Arab Wings in 2008, fresh from college. "Arab Wings has taken the time to educate me about the industry and now I have been in the industry for almost four years I am very ambitious, so I am looking forward to what's going to happen in my career in future." The qualities Elayyan considers important for the role are patience, flexibility and the persistence to pursue follow-ups with clients.

Chartering a plane to transport birds of prey may not be as unusual as expected. Elayyan says: "We actually received a call today from a client requesting a mid-size jet for himself and four trained falcons, asking to keep the birds inside the cabin without their cages. We had to go and check our manuals before accepting or declining his request."