Africa/Middle East: December 2006 Archives

BMED chief executive David Richardson was in Washington recently to promote his new services from London to West Africa to the US travel trade.
Bookings on BMED's on new services to Dakar, Senegal, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, from London Heathrow Airport are better than expected, according to chief executive David Richardson. Launched at the end of October, the bookings for December and January are "way over budget", he says.

Richardson was in Washington for a reception at the British Embassy, sponsored by UK Trade & Investment and British Airways, to celebrate the new service; there are an 40,000-60,000 residents in the Washington area with West African roots.

A franchise partner of British Airways since 1997, BMED operates the new services three times a week with narrow-body Airbus aircraft, equipped with Club World and World Traveller seating. The flights are timed for connections to and from BA's 40 daily US-UK transatlantic flights.

BMED currently has three A320s and five A321s in its fleet and has five more A321s on order. "We're looking forward to further expansion in the next few years." With the new service, the carrier flies to 17 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, including many points other carriers avoid, such as in Kazakhstan, Syria, Iran and Lebanon, where it started flying in 1994 as British Mediterranean Airways. "We're used to serving challenging destinations," Richardson notes.

The airline makes a point of hiring local managers at each airport. They are both a fantastic source of information on local culture and markets, he says, and the airline has been able to help with inward investment, playing a role in the development of the local economies it serves. "We have no expat managers at all," Richardson adds. "It gives us a bit of an edge."

Iain Burns, the British Airways public relations chief who resigned in early October in the wake of the still on-going UK/US probe into price-fixing, has swapped chilly Waterside for sunny Abu Dhabi. Burns, a highly experience PR operator, has been named as the head of corporate communications at Etihad Airways, the fast growing Middle East carrier that is vying to give Emirates a run for its money.

It is a remarkable and swift renaissance for Burns and he will be looking to put the price-fixing issue behind him very quickly. Etihad will be getting a seasoned airline PR operator. Etihad's new chief executive, James Hogan, says that the experience Burns has in the aviation sector "is ideally suited in telling the story of our expansive agenda to the media and our own employees".

Burns, 48, left BA after five years as its head of corporate communications. He had joined from PR consultancy Bell Pottinger where, in a neat twist, he handled European and North American PR for Emriates. Burns had two spells at BA, and managed the PR for American Airlines in the UK. In his first public words since leaving BA, Burns said: "This is an exciting time to join Etihad which has come a long way in a short period of time and has great plans for the future. I am very much looking forward to playing my part in articulating the airline's formidable strategy to a growing audience around the globe."

Burns is expected to begin work at Etihad in 2007.

Expect appointment news from the other BA official who resigned in after the price-fixing probe - commercial director Martin George - shortly as well. Word on the street is that, not surprisingly for this well-regarding executive, offers have been coming his way.

Iain Burns, the British Airways public relations chief who resigned in early October in the wake of the still on-going UK/US probe into price-fixing, has swapped chilly Waterside for sunny Abu Dhabi. Burns, a highly experience PR operator, has been named as the head of corporate communications at Etihad Airways, the fast growing Middle East carrier that is vying to give Emirates a run for its money.

It is a remarkable and swift renaissance for Burns and he will be looking to put the price-fixing issue behind him very quickly. Etihad will be getting a seasoned airline PR operator. Etihad's new chief executive, James Hogan, says that the experience Burns has in the aviation sector "is ideally suited in telling the story of our expansive agenda to the media and our own employees".

Burns, 48, left BA after five years as its head of corporate communications. He had joined from PR consultancy Bell Pottinger where, in a neat twist, he handled European and North American PR for Emriates. Burns had two spells at BA, and managed the PR for American Airlines in the UK. In his first public words since leaving BA, Burns said: "This is an exciting time to join Etihad which has come a long way in a short period of time and has great plans for the future. I am very much looking forward to playing my part in articulating the airline's formidable strategy to a growing audience around the globe."

Burns is expected to begin work at Etihad in 2007.

Expect appointment news from the other BA official who resigned in after the price-fixing probe - commercial director Martin George - shortly as well. Word on the street is that, not surprisingly for this well-regarding executive, offers have been coming his way.

Delta Air Lines has become the first US major in five years to operate a service to the African continent.

The carrier's inaugural flight to Johannesburg landed yesterday (see picture above), completing a 20-hour journey from Atlanta via Dakar in Senegal.

Delta, which has never before operated any routes to sub-Saharan Africa, will also launch a service next week from New York to Accra in Ghana.

Africa has not been served by any US major since 2001, when both Delta and TWA dropped their Cairo services. But the US government, by signing open skies agreements with several African countries, has been trying to promote more direct air links with Africa. Miami airport also has been holding an annual conference with the Foundation for Democracy in Africa to promote more US-Africa links. More flights between the USA and Africa are seen as a must if efforts to boost trade and economic ties between the two are successful.

Miami is now trying to woo South African Airways (SAA), which used to serve Miami, and Kenya Airways, which is looking at adding its first US destination. SAA also flew to Atlanta until earlier this year. The switch prompted Delta, which had been a codeshare partner with SAA, to look at launching its own Johannesburg service. Delta recently inked a codeshare pact with small domestic carrier Nationwide Airlines, which will carry Delta's code on its flights within South Africa.

Not many US majors, however, seem interested in Africa. Even Delta, which is looking to further grow its market-leading transatlantic operation, says no more African destinations are on its radar screen. Delta says forward bookings of its new African routes are encouraging, with most sales to Ghana generated from the USA and the Johannesburg flight receiving equal bookings from South Africa and the Americas.

Below is a picture of (left to right) US Consul General Stephen Coffman, Delta vice president of sales and affairs for Europe, Middle East and Africa Frank Jahangir and chief executive of South African tourism Africa Moeketsi Mosola cutting the ribbon following Delta's arrival yesterday at Johannesburg.