By Chinelo Obogo
EgyptAir has appointed a General Sales Agent (GSA) to drive its sales and marketing strategy in Nigeria’s aviation market.
The airline said it has partnered with Elite Tours, a GSA firm with its parent company, Master Travels, an Egypt based Travel and Tourism Management Organisation. It also opened a new office in Kano as part of its expansion to reach more customers.
Speaking on the pedigree of the GSA, the Managing Director of Elite Tours, Mr. Mohamed Said, said, “The company has a strong history in Egypt. We are one of the top tour operators in Cairo, with a mother company in Egypt known as Master Travels,” while the General Manager of the GSA in Nigeria, Mr. Muharram Abdelrahman said, “This is a significant milestone in the history of EgyptAir in Nigeria since the airline started operations in Nigeria more than 45 years ago. During this time we used to carry out business in Nigeria through our offices in Lagos, Kano and Abuja. In order to get more quality service, the airline took a decision to have a GSA in Kano and Lagos in order to satisfy the customer needs and to be closer to the customers.
“We help in the coordination of EgyptAir operations with the management of the airline here in Nigeria and have held different meetings with our ground handling agent, also with the catering company so that we can be sure that high quality service is getting to EgyptAir customers. Also, we recently enhanced our product in Kano with our brand new A321. We need to concentrate more on the cargo business especially in Lagos to bring more flights and aircraft to cover the high demand for cargo. These are different ways we are trying to enhance our services to the Nigerian market.”
The airline’s Country Manager, Mr. Amr Basha disclosed that, “The airline tends to operate through a GSA in order to make its operations more efficient. So, instead of building or renting their own staff and offices, we contract with a GSA with more experience in the market and that is why Mr. Muharram Abdelrahman was chosen as GSA manager because he is very experienced and has a strong knowledge about aviation in Nigeria.
“We are also concentrating on tourism and we are planning to have charter flights from here to Sharm El Shiek during the Easter and summer holidays. We also have a package for medical tourists in coordination with EgyptAir Hospital. We have also planned for several packages for travel agents with aviation ticketing courses, airline marketing and sales as well as other related fields in coordination with our training centre.”
As regards the issue of blocked funds, he said, “We have the issue of blocked funds like the majority of airlines operating here in Nigeria but it didn’t affect our operations. We are flying daily from Lagos, four times from Abuja and four from Kano. We are affected because we cannot take our money out, but we remained in the market because we have a good relationship with the Nigerian government as well as with our customers and we need to serve the Nigerian market in spite of the fact that we are affected by this problem.”