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Bobby Bryan, is the Commercial Director, West, East, Central and Lusophone Africa for Delta Air Lines. In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke, he speaks about how the airline is making travel experience for Nigerians enjoyable, saying more pleasant experience awaits them as with the introduction of Lagos-New York route this year. Excerpts:
Delta airline has built a reputation of on-time performance and convenient travel experience in Nigeria. How do you hope to sustain this going forward?
For us on-time performance is a priority and this is because our customers rely on us and if they know we are going to depart and arrive on time, they can make their business plans, social plans and vacation plans around that. In fact, we were honoured last year by aviation data and analytics company, FlightGlobal as the World’s Most On-Time Airline and we apply those standards here in Nigeria as we do everywhere else we fly in the world. This is so our passengers are able to schedule their trips with confidence that we will give them the timely service they need.
This year, the narrative of air travel is gradually changing for you, with your propose commencement of Lagos-New York flights. How will this benefit Nigeria and Delta airlines?
The introduction of our flights from Lagos to New York is an important step as the economy and Delta rebuilds after the financial crisis in Nigeria. The New-York route is the largest unserved route from the United States to Nigeria. This means there are a lot of people who want to go there. So, it is important that the need be met.
We are in the position to do so, as we have a hub in New York City, Kennedy as well. The clients that will be going from here are important to us. It is the financial market; we are the capital finance in Nigeria. New York is the capital finance in the United States. There is also the Tech market. There are a lot of technology developments going on in Nigeria as there are in New York. There is the cultural market such as the dance, the music and the film. There is a lot in New York and we have a lot in Lagos as well. We saw a market that was not being served and we thought we had an opportunity to do so.
What plans and strategies do have to ensure the Lagos-New York route is sustained?
We know that there is a lot of demand and we can measure that demand. We have been flying to Nigeria for 10 years now and we have quite a lot of experience. This has given us the background to understand what new markets could work and when we see the amount of demand that exists, we are very confident that the new service will be a success.
What class of passengers are the most frequent flyers on Delta airline in Nigeria?
One of the things that have been really interesting about our flights from Lagos is the diversity of passengers that we carry. We carry quite a bit of business class passengers and they come from a lot of background such as the oil industry, finance, industry, and government. We have quite a bit of leisure travellers. We serve other parts of the markets such as students, missionaries and small businessmen.
One of the things I find very interesting is that there are large community of Nigerians in the United States such as places like Atlanta, New York and Chicago, amongst others. Nigerians go to almost all of our destinations in the States because they are doing all kinds of things. So, we have simply everybody and that is what accounts for part of our successes because there is such diverse clientele.
Since you commenced operations in Nigeria, what has been your contribution to the aviation sector in Nigeria?
The first thing I will point out is that Delta airline is 100percent Nigerian operation in Nigeria. This is from our Station Manager to Sales Manager, we are 100percent Nigerian.
Secondly, we bring the reliability and the focus on safety into the market and I think the market has responded to that and that is why we have been able to stay this long and to see that this is working and we should try to do more. Aviation in general brings the ability for people to be together and to go do what they want to do. So, what we brought is that ability for people to go quickly from Nigeria to the United States.
We have done a few local activities. We are the global sponsors of Junior Achievement which encourages young people and students to think differently and makes them be a creative force.
We also have internship programme here, where Delta interns work directly from here, these are young Nigerian students who get experience from a global company and they spend a year with us. We give them a laptop; we work on their CV and interview skills and social interaction skills. Many of them have moved on to careers not just in the airline industry but also in government ministries and in other companies. This has been one of our biggest successes here.
Considering the emergency landing incident Delta had in Nigeria. How will you rate the performance of the government agencies that were on ground to ensure that passengers were evacuated?
Let me say how much we value and appreciate the support and assistance that we were given from so many government agencies: The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), just to name a few. We were so appreciative of how they came to us, offered their assistance and were able to help us assist our passengers in that difficult time. As you know for Delta, security is our number one priority and working with the Nigerian authorities, we were able to handle what was a difficult situation.
How supportive have the agencies been even after the incident?
We are in active cooperation with several government agencies as we speak. The investigations and continued discussions are going on and once again, working with the Nigerian authorities has been a positive point so that we are all on the same page and able to learn from this to make sure that everyone is given the right assistance at the right time and everyone has access to all the information they need. I anticipate that this positive cooperation will continue.
Tell us about your strategies ensure continuous safety and adequate service enhancement between Nigeria and the USA?
As I mentioned before, safety and security is Delta’s number one priority. Our passengers, crew and staff are our leading priority. This is a given in aviation business. We think that services is critical because passengers need to travel but need to travel in a certain way, so we have brought the best that Delta has to offer here in Nigeria.
Recently we have been using our Airbus 330 aircraft, which has an enhanced passenger experience in all cabins. We have started to show Nollywood films flying across the world and not just in Nigeria. We work very closely to make sure the catering on board is what Nigerians will like to eat. We have actually done several tastings locally with some of our Nigerian clients to ensure the food we serve on-board is really how they would like it to be.
