The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, (NAHCO) has won the keenly contested handling contract of Qatar Airways for another five years.
NAHCO’s Group Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Saheed Lasisi, in announcing the development, expressed excitement about the feat, describing it as a boost for both companies, as NAHCO was primed to continue its excellent service delivery to the airline.
“With the new contract, which runs for five years and coupled with the additional frequencies of Qatar flights to Nigeria and Ghana, we are glad to go even further to provide the top -notched services for which we are known and have offered the airline for the past nine years.
“Also, the recent addition of more Ground Support Equipment (GSE) especially the brand-new dollies, Qatar Airways and our other clients will experience the best available handling service.”
Also, NAHCO has signed a new contract with Nigeria’s indigenous carrier, Azman Air on its international route, in addition to the previously held contracts for Azman’s domestic operations.
Azman was recently granted approval to commence international operations with its newly acquired A340-600 series. NAHCO is well positioned and excited to help Azman Air succeed as it goes international.
In another development, the Group Managing Director of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, Mrs. Olatokunbo Fagbemi, has expressed NAHCO’s readiness to work with the National Trade Facilitation Committee of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to improve the nation’s capacity for export. She made the statement during a visit of the Committee on an inspection tour of the Company’s facility.
The committee, led by its Chairman, who is also a Director at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Aliyu Abubakar, had earlier been briefed by NAHCO’S team on the Company’s activities and processes.
In his remarks, the Committee Chairman and leader of the delegation, Abubakar urged NAHCO to continue on the path to boosting export with the creation of additional cold rooms and storage facility for agricultural- products.
NAHCO Plc is a Nigerian diversified enterprise with interests in aviation cargo, aircraft handling, passenger facilitation, crew transportation and aviation training.
The company currently serves several airlines across the major functional airports within Nigeria, and handles the largest chunk of domestic, foreign and cargo airlines.
Emirates Launches New Connectivity Initiative
In order to ensure direct access to Emirates’ content and other services, the airline has launched a suite of connectivity options for its trade partners around the world.
Nigeria’s Trade Partners amongst others, can now benefit from the Emirates Gateway, which was developed using IATA’s New
Distribution Capability (NDC) standards, and now available on the recently launched Emirates Partners Portal, a new state-of-the-art-online platform.
Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, Adnan Kazim, said: “The Emirates Gateway suite of connection options has been built on new technology and is designed to address the limitations of current legacy distribution systems.
“Our aim was to create a platform that empowers us to rapidly develop and deploy new products and services, thereby giving us and our trade partners the ability to offer even more value-added and differentiated services. It also prepares the way for Emirates to offer custom content and dynamic pricing that better responds to our changing marketplace.”
Offering improved access to Emirates’ products and services with an intuitive and easy to ease interface, the Emirates Gateway offers the airline’s trade partners the ability to enhance travellers’ journeys with customized products and services.
Trade partners can connect to the Emirates Gateway via three flexible access solutions: Emirates Booking Portal, a user-friendly web booking portal available in 12 languages, connected directly to Emirates’ reservation systems that simplifies the booking, ticketing and post-ticketing servicing of Emirates orders.
Others include Emirates Gateway Direct which provides access to Emirates content through IATA NDC APIs, allowing trade partners to build applications that meet their needs with expert support from Emirates’ IT teams. In addition, there is the Emirates Gateway Sync, a facilitated link into the Emirates reservation system provided by industry leading, IATA registered, Emirates certified technology partners.
Travel trade agents can find more information on the Emirates Gateway, via the Emirates Partners Portal, or contact the Emirates sales representative in their market.
Qatar Introduces Vegan Dishes
Qatar Airways has introduced its first range of fully vegan dishes to its à la carte menu for Business Class passengers on all flights, designed to cater to the increasing demand for plant-based food while elevating passengers’ culinary experience when they travel with the award-winning airline.
The newly crafted vegan dishes use only the freshest locally and internationally sourced ingredients and are available to all Business Class passengers flying from the airline’s Doha hub, Hamad International Airport, and selected flights into Doha.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Mr. Akbar Al Baker said: “We always strive to provide our customers with authentic and indulgent experiences in the skies. We are delighted to incorporate a vegan main course choice to our on-board menu, offering our passengers yet another lifestyle choice that redefines the expectations from a five-star airline.”
Designed with sustainability and taste at its heart, Qatar Airways’ range of flavourful vegan dishes include smoked moutabel, spiral courgettes and arrabbiata sauce, tofu and spinach tortellini, asian barbecue tofu, noodles, scallions and shiitake, fried tofu with vegetable tajine, cauliflower couscous and kalamata bruschetta, and chickpea flour omelette.
The airline also offers a wide selection of special meals to cater to different dietary requirements. Passengers can request a special meal up to 24 hours before their flight. These include young traveller meals, vegetarian or religious meals and medical or health care meals.
Qatar Aircraft Catering Company (QACC), the exclusive catering provider at Hamad International Airport, ensures that all in-flight meals are prepared to the highest quality using the freshest ingredients. Spanning an extraordinary 69,000 square meters, QACC is one of the world’s largest self-contained catering facilities.
