Airline recognises industry leaders

HARARE - Emirates, which flies daily from Harare to Dubai and Lusaka, has celebrated the contribution of Zimbabwe's travel agents to sparking the nation's desire for travel.

Traverze Travel received the airline's top award for excellence for the second year in a row, while Premier Travel was named first runner-up in the awards, and Star Travel as second runner-up.Wings Travel was named third runner-up and Harvey World Travel fourth.

Certificates for outstanding support were awarded to Tour Africa, Zilala Travel and Hungwe Travel. Five other travel agents have received certificates of acknowledgement: Wings Travel, Harvey World Travel, Tour Africa, Zilala Travel and Hungwe Travel.

"We are proud to honour our travel agent partners with these awards is a symbol of the contribution they have made to Zimbabwe's travel industry in providing great value for money and bringing Emirates' world-class products and services to customers," said Emirates Country Manager for Zimbabwe Paulos Legesse.

Emirates makes awards each year to recognise the achievements of the best performing agents, who highlighted the importance of the airline's value for money, products and services, and wide network in attracting travellers.

The value for money provided by Emirates came in for particular praise from Zodwa Mkandla, Managing Director of winning travel agent Traverze Travel, who said: "Our customers love Emirates mainly because of the on-board hospitality from the multi-national cabin crew, which also includes Zimbabwean nationals. Customers also enjoy the spacious and comfortable seats on Emirates' aircraft. Zimbabweans love shopping and the generous baggage allowance of 30kg is an added incentive to fly on Emirates. The menu has got a variety to choose from and suits even the fussiest eaters. Long flights can be a challenge but our customers do not complain because they enjoy the hundreds of channels of audio and visual entertainment on ice, including children's programmes and games.

"For those clients who travel with kids, kids get free toys, magazines and they have got their own special menu. The cabin crew is always ready to assist with the babies. Our executives love Emirates as it is the first airline to offer free mobile phone use on-board and to offer Wi-Fi services therefore they can catch up on their emails and stay up-to-date with what's happening in the office."

Meanwhile, Clayton Pike, Managing Director of Premier Travel Agency, said: "Emirates business class product is among the best in the world, being able seamlessly sell a business class product out of our market without any third party carriers is definitely an added advantage. Having said that one must also take into account the excellent award-winning cuisine and entertainment as well as the add-on services, like wi-fi, chauffer drive service and excellent lounges as well as the on-board lounges on all the A380s."

And Star Travel Chief Executive Officer Shila Patel praised the airline's "great connectivity to destinations around the world, the safety of Dubai, with its world class hotels, entertainment and shopping."

EK 713 departs Dubai every day at 0925hrs, arriving in Lusaka at 1435hrs. The service departs Lusaka at 1605hrs, arriving in Harare at 1710hrs. The return flight leaves Harare at 1840hrs, arriving Lusaka at 1950hrs. It departs Lusaka at 2125hrs and lands in Dubai at 0640hrs the next day.