Gambia Welcomes Numerous Maiden Flights for The 2024/25 Winter Tourism Season
By Yunus S Saliu
With the commencement of the 2024/2025 winter tourism season declared on Friday, October 11, 2024, Destination Gambia has witnessed maiden flights from various markets. The most recent arrivals include Corendon, TUI UK, and Titan Eastern Europe, they were welcomed at the Banjul International Airport by key officials from the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) alongside press representatives.
Corendon from Holland made its landing at 1230 hours with 197 pax (passengers) on board, and Titan Easter Europe flights from Warsaw Poland landed with 193 pax at 2030 hours and half an hour later at 2100 hours, the TUI UK flew into the destination with 192 pax.
Passengers on board each maiden flight were well received and culturally entertained by Gambian cultural performing groups at the airport.
Foday Bah, Head of Marketing of the GTBoard receiving and welcoming the maiden flights and passengers onboard to Destination Gambia, known as The Smiling Coast of Africa, disclosed that more maiden flights are expected this season while commending the Gambia Tourism Board and Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture for their efforts in capturing more markets for the destination.
He said the Ministry and its tourism institution made lots of efforts in terms of joint marketing to promote the destination worldwide. He noted that Poland is another viable destination for Gambia, and “the team is trying so hard to promote Destination Gambia in Poland, and the country is among those that come through chartered flights.”
He also rated Holland and the UK as markets “that we cannot do without.” At the same time, he noted that for the ongoing winter tourism season 2024/2025, the total flight frequency to the destination is 57 per week and comprises scheduled and chartered flights of 33 and 24 flights.
Commenting on the service delivery of the Airport personnel, compared to last year “There’s a huge improvement because last year the place was so congested, especially when receiving two flights simultaneously. But so far this year, we have been monitoring the situation and have been impressed and with the believe that it will continue like this.”
