A recent move to make doing business in Sudan more palpable for Lebanese entrepreneurs is paying off for British Mediterranean Airways (BMED). In the first two months since the carrier opened its London – Beirut – Khartoum line for service between Khartoum and the Lebanese capital in the middle of May, passenger load factors developed well, according to BMED regional sales manager, Naji Mahdi.
The new service reduces travel times between Beirut and Khartoum from at least nine to under three hours each way, because in the past, passengers had to transit through other countries to reach Sudan, Mahdi said, “but we did not take advantage of this to raise our fares.”
BMED had taken first steps towards creating the Beirut – Khartoum service about 18 months ago in changing the routing of its London – Khartoum flights from going via Amman to stopping in Beirut. The door for the new service was opened fully when the civil aviation authorities in Lebanon and Sudan readily allowed BMED to carry passengers on the route under so-called fifth freedom rights. Unless they are granted these rights, airlines are not permitted to issue tickets between an intermediate and the final destination of a flight.
In its general business between Beirut and London, the airline saw no significant slump because of the political uncertainties that Lebanon experienced in the first half of the year. Most recently, BMED received some cancellations “due to whatever happened in London and in Lebanon,” Mehdi said. “We had a slight drop over last year but things are picking up and in 2005, we should be carrying the same number of passengers as last year, or slightly more.”
