By Allieu Sahid Tunkara & Mabinti Kamara
Brussels Airlines is to introduce two more flights into its schedule in Sierra Leone, an official said Tuesday.
Brussels Airlines Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Lars Redeligx made the disclosure at a special press briefing giving account of the airlines operations in the last year since the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease.
Brussels Airlines, formerly known as SN Brussels started flying to the country in 2002. The airline had a change of name in 2007.
Since May 25 when the first case of the epidemic was recorded in Sierra Leone, it transported 80, 000 passengers into and out of Sierra Leone, Redeligx said, adding that this happened without exporting a single case of the virus to any other country.
He was speaking at the Raddison Blu Hotel in Freetown in the presence of stakeholders in the aviation sector, including the ministers of Transport and Aviation, and Tourism and Cultural Affairs.
Mr Redeligx said Brussels Airlines went through tough times in the country amidst the epidemic. He recalled at one point when their flight was refused landing at the Senegal International Airport to refuel and the captain had cause to call several countries before Casablanca (Morocco) accepted the landing request.
“Apart from other passengers, Brussels Airlines transported more than 2, 000 medical aides and badly needed goods especially Ebola vaccines,’’ Redeligx said, describing the airline`s performance throughout the period as a ‘great achievement’. He attributed it to the safety measures adopted at the Lungi International Airport.
He also credited the medical charity ‘Doctors Without Borders’, which he referred to as ‘heroes’ in the Ebola fight, for their advice.
The fact that those airlines that boycotted the country at the height of the epidemic were resuming their operations was a good sign about the fight against the epidemic, he said, and he urged the government to treat the issue of transportation as a development priority.
“On September 8, Brussels Airlines would add its flights to four,’’ he then went on to reveal.
Minister of Transport and Aviation, Leonard Balogun Koroma, said when Sierra Leone recorded its first case of the Ebola virus disease, nine airlines were operating in the country. Seven pulled out.
Among the two airlines which stayed and continued to connect the country to Europe and the United States was Brussels Airlines, the minister said.
He also recalled that during the civil war, Brussels Airlines stayed on in the face of the insecurity.
“It is a big sacrifice for the airline to stay with us during times of crisis,’’ Minister Koroma said.
Echoing the claim made by the Brussels Airlines CCO that they never exported any case of the virus, the Aviation minister said that prompted the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to visit the Lungi International Airport to assess the safety measures there. He said as the situation was getting back to normal, the public should not forget to lend its support to Brussels Airlines since it had been with the country during the Ebola period.
Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Kadie Sesay, assured that the country’s relationship with Brussels Airlines would grow stronger.
“The airline stayed with us at a time when nobody wanted us,’’ she said, appealing to her colleagues in government, ministries, departments and agencies to give priority to the purchase of Brussels Airlines tickets as a show of good will gesture.
(C) Politico 18/06/15
