…..commends AIB for professionalism during incident
American airline Delta, has strengthened its flight into the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, Lagos with the commencement of New York JFK route.
The flight which is to be operated three times weekly with an A330-200 aircraft with 234 seats will give its guests more travel choice into the US more than ever before.
At a news conference in Lagos, Delta airline Vice President, Africa, Middle East, Europe and India, Corneel Koster said linking the two financial capital cities was a great deal for the airline.
He pointed out that, the current environment in Nigeria, “is very, very promising, the economic outlook is great and we are enjoying to ensuring our customers can connect even better to the United States and also that we give our customers the latest innovation in terms of quality service”.
Koster while explaining further for the airline reasons to start nonstop flight from Lagos to New York JFK said, the forecast by the World Bank of growth in the Nigeria GDP was a positive trend for the airline to catch into.
“This year, the World Bank is forecasting 2.5% growth in GDP for Nigeria and that’s really important because when we look at the business environment growth in GDP is often times rated closely to that, so we have good reason to believe that there is a positive trend in the Nigerian economy”.
Speaking further on the New York launch, Bobby Bryan, Delta’s Commercial Director, East and West Africa said the United States was the largest foreign investor into Nigeria in the main sectors not only in oil but in finance, technology and some of the creative sectors,”and this drive quite a bit of traffic and its also linked to why we want to have a second destination to New York”.
“Between the United States and Nigeria, the trade amounts to approximately 9 billion dollars in 2016 no doubt its growing as we speak now in 2018 and up to 2019, so it makes a lot of sense to us to capitalize on the trade development to start a Lagos JFK”, he added.
On the recent incident involving one of its aircraft that recorded an engine fire one hour after take off from the Lagos International airport, Delta airline’s Vice President, Corneel Koster, commended the Nigeria’s Accident Investigation Bureau and other Aviation Authorities for the professionalism displayed during the incident.
He emphasized that the safety and security of its customers and our crew was Delta’s one priority and was working closely with the AIB and the other Nigerian aviation authorities in good cooperation following the recent incident.
” We are grateful for the continued support and professionalism of the AIB and other Nigerian aviation authorities while the current investigation is still on-going, so its an on-going investigation”.
Delta operates to 4 African cities & offers 44 flights per week and has transported over 377,000 in 2017 with Strong partnerships withKenya Airways alongside with Joint Ventures with partners like Air France-KLM, Alitalia & Virgin Atlantic.
It has carried Over 89,000 passengers between Lagos and United State, average 82% load factor.
