* Bankole
The Managing Director of Med-View Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole has said the carrier’s expansion drive is to network the West African sub region and also part of the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision(YD).
This is just at the Med-View boss declared that the implementation of YD has benefited the airline greatly, as it has started the integration of the sub region, which has the potential to provide a very large air travel market in view of its over 300million people.
Recalled that the Yamoussoukro Decision was adopted in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire on November 14, 1999 for the liberalisation of access to air transport markets in Africa.
This Decision was subsequently endorsed by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Lome, Togo on July 12, 2000.
The managing Director said this in Dakar, the Senegalese capital at the weekend at the commencement of flight operations into three French-speaking West African countries made up Côte d’ ivoire, Guinea, Senegal.
The latest expansion drive by Med-View Airlines brings to seven the number of countries in the West Africa region that it operates into and that it will provide the springboard for their international operations.
According to Bankole, “Our drive is to network the entire West African region as one entity and bring them together and make an inroad into Dubai and to Jeddah which we know from here we have almost 99 per cent our Muslim family. We have a focus, we have the direction and from here we can encourage ourselves to develop together.”
He continued, “I just want to inform you for record purposes that ECOWAS is over 300 million people and you can remember that population is the market. And two, what we have mentioned to bring everyone together from the point of departure to go to the West African countries. We have mentioned seven, we are in Ghana, we operate to Monrovia, we operate into Freetown, we are here (Senegal), we are in Conakry we have a base in Togo.”
He hailed the Senegalese government for the construction of her new airport, adding that he was glad that Med-view would be part of success story.
In his words, “We are proud and we want to thank the President of this country for building a new airport, it is a drive for everyone of us, we are proud to be associated with the ongoing development and we will be here (Insha Allah) when the airport is commissioned.”
On what passengers expect from the airline, Bankole stated that the airline’s service was excellence and that the carrier has stepped up the game on the international routes with its service.
“We are known for customer satisfaction at Med-View, our on-time departure is not negotiable and for those who fly us, we are not only a regional carrier but we have four flights to the United Kingdom using Gatwick as our base. We also have four flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and by God’s grace come December 7, we are hitting Dubai Terminal One. Same time we are looking at the United states come summer,” Bankole said.
