Africa/Middle East: April 2009 Archives

Just over a week ago I wrote a blog on the Nigerian Minister of Transport frowning on Delta's application to serve Lagos because of the quality of its aircraft and in-flight product.

Well the debate has well and truly raged over the past week with over 20 comments about the issue, including people's direct experience of the service.

I can offer some more background as well. Here is a piece written after the service was launched in Nigeria World by a columnist now living in the USA Dr Femi Ajayi.

And clearly the issue of Delta's service level on this flight is not entirely new, as this story and its comments show.

This article comments on the generally poor airline service levels in Nigeria.

Here's a video about Delta's service launch to Nigeria in late 2007.

My next step is to talk to Delta to see what they have to say about this issue - I will be contacting the carrier, or you are welcome to contact me - mark.pilling@flightglobal.com - and we'll have a chat.

As the title sponsor of this weekend's Formula 1 Grand Prix Gulf Air is naturally everywhere you look here in Bahrain. It is "backing the race" big time as Bahrain works with all of its partners to build a business friendly city.

It was the vision of Bahrain's Crown Prince to bring the Kingdom to a global audience back in 2004 when the first race was hosted.

Gulf Air signed the title sponsorship of the Grand Prix (for an undisclosed amount) for that race and last year extended the deal for another five years to 2013, says the airline's CEO Bjorn Naf.

But sponsoring a Formula 1 team is not on the cards: "We've been approached by teams but it is way too expensive for us," says Naf.

Bahrain is anyway strongly associated with the McLaren-Mercedes team through the Kingdom's investment company Mumtalakat, which has a 30% stake in the McLaren Group. Mumtalakat also owns Gulf Air.

PIX RIGHT: Toyota mechanics prepare Jarno Trulli's car on Saturday. Later in the afternoon he drove to pole position for the Grand Prix.

It is hard to measure the direct effect of sponsoring a Grand Prix for Gulf Air, but the global exposure is huge. "If we can ride with that industry [Formula 1] that certainly makes an impact," says Naf.

Here's a little spin-off seen below, with BBC's Live TV coverage - seen with pundit and former driver David Coulthard - conveniently for the airline using one of its logos as its backdrop.

MORE PIX:ABOVE: The pit lane here at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.

BELOW: Measuring the temperature of the track. It got to 53 degrees C at 1300 today!

That is the thinly veiled message that may have blunted the push of Delta Air Lines further into Africa.

The story goes, detailed in Nigeria's Punch newspaper here, that Nigerian Minister of Aviation, Mr Babatunde Omotoba, turned Delta back because he wasn't all that happy with the quality of the aircraft - a 767-200 - and its in-flight entertainment. The route in question was to Nigerian capital Abuja.

I got the tip on this story from a US source and would welcome any further details.