South African Airways (SAA) Nigeria and Emotions DMC, a Destination Management Company have struck a partnership deal to woo Nigerian travel agencies to sell destination Mauritius to Nigerian travellers.
The partnership deal was signed at a workshop for top selling travel agents in Lagos which was organized by Africa’s leading Airline, South African Airways and Emotions DMC.
Kemi Leke-bamtefa, South African Airways National Marketing Manager, recommended travel agents
to sell the airline beyond South Africa, identifying Mauritius as one of its strongest routes.
“Mauritius is one of our strongest routes. It is a recognized tourism destination in the world and SAA have two flights daily to Mauritius from our hub in Johannesburg. The beauty of Mauritius is it’s visa on arrival for Nigerians, and when you are traveling on SAA you don’t need a transit visa,” Leke-bamtefa stated.
She explained some benefits of flying SAA to Mauritius, “when you fly SAA from Nigeria to Mauritius, you can combine the two destinations on one trip, which allows your journey to be seamless. You can also enjoy the net fares option for group travels on SAA.”
Mauritius is stunning. From the white sand beaches, waterfalls, rocky mountains and richness in cultural diversity to incredible hospitality, it has become a top destination for family vacations, group travellers, wedding and conferences.
David Collard, Emotions DMC Managing Director, said that Emotions as a Destination Management Company, is a “one stop shop” to be the eyes and ears of clients when they arrive Mauritius.
According to David Collard, “Mauritius for Nigerian travellers remain a growing market in the travel industry and we hope to double it. Our objective is to allow our customers to feel the soul of Mauritius”.
“Mauritius is very safe, whether it is family vacations, honeymoon or business, you can leave your hotel rooms and mix with the locals on the streets. It is amazing that Nigeria’s high season happens to be Mauritius’ low season, which makes the destination perfect for genuine travellers,” he added.
The Managing Director/chief Executive Officer, Skyway Aviation Handling Company PLC (SAHCO), Basil Agboarumi has highlighted the critical roles being played by IATA’S Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) in Ground Handling and Airline operations in Africa.
Basil Agboarumi, who was one of the keynote speakers during the just concluded maiden edition of GSE & RAMP-OPS Africa event in Casablanca, Morocco said ISAGO has standardized ground handling operations through its audits thereby ensuring safety of aviation across the world.
While speaking on the topic titled ‘Effectiveness of ISAGO in Managing Ground Handling Services for Airlines Benefits for Africa’, he said ISAGO audit has eliminated Multiple Audits per Ground Service Provider (GSP) and Individual Airline Auditing Systems, increased safety in aviation by ensuring standards which has led to reduction in air accidents unlike what was obtainable before the existence of ISAGO.
Agboarumi stressed that the introduction of ISAGO audit has given room for audit sharing thereby driving down the number of redundant audits and also improving operational safety, Standardization across multiple operations, reduction of incidents
in ground operations and enhancing company’s image and reputation.
Apart from ensuring safety in aviation, Basil stated further that ISAGO has a lot of other benefits, some of which include promotion of efficiency and quality service delivery through innovations and technology, lowering operational cost by eliminating multiple audit which enables ground operators and airlines to focus their resources on operations, to ensure implementation of Safety Management System (SMS) in operations.
Paul Drever, the chairman of the conference, said the GSE AND RAMP -OPS conference was organised to bring together the buyers, users and manufacturers of GSE to explore how to drive the sector forward. He went on to discuss the operational challenges in airside operations in Africa and how GSE is used in the continent and how it can be improved.
The event which took place in Sofitel, Casablanca had other speakers from across the world, amongst whom were David Burgess of Swissport, Tafadzawa Zaza of Air Zimbabwe, Dimitrios Sanos of IATA, Danny Vranckx of Aviaco GSE, while there were exhibitors of world known GSE’S ,such as Air Marrel, Blissfox, Mulag, Transtec Overseas amongst others.
