Judith Limburn

'We have looked very closely at what customers require in this market,' says country manager for the UAE, Oman and Yemen, Judith Limburn who has been based in Dubai for six months and previously masterminded an Internet marketing in Italy for the airline. 'We will be looking at some online initiatives next year. But this market does seem too small to work without the travel agency network, and we are considering what to do'.

Meantime, British Airways' first target is to reassure its customers about the safety of flying. 'BA has always had excellent safety procedures but we have gone further,' says Ms Limburn.

She notes, for example, that BA has 100% reconciliation of baggage to passengers so that an aircraft will not fly if the owners of an item are not on board. There are also additional baggage checks on hand luggage, aircraft are now guarded on the ground, and the cockpit doors are locked, although the precise arrangements are not public knowledge for obvious reasons.

In addition, passengers are now banned from visiting the cockpit during flights and there is full security screening for all crew. The idea is that better security procedures on the ground will make for greater safety in the air. Even first class passengers now have to make do with plastic cutlery to ensure that sharp objects that could be used to threaten the crew are not on board.

'There has never been a safer time to fly,' is now the motto for BA executives. But as the Middle East's largest international carrier British Airways has not escaped unscathed from the crisis since September 11. Around 10% of staff have been axed and the frequency of flights to most destinations has been reduced.

'In the past three weeks we have seen a 10% improvement in sales every week and forward bookings for January and February are healthy,' says Ms Limburn. 'So we think we are seeing some stabilisation in the marketplace. But there will be some excellent value for money promotions over the next year and innovations such as our full-length beds for business class passengers on all flights'.

Meanwhile, the BA flagship Concorde is now back in the sky for which around 6% of passengers are from the Middle East, and the carrier's new marketing programme is beginning to roll. For its autumn campaigns were abruptly terminated as 'inappropriate' after September 11. Nobody is suggesting that this will be business as usual, but at least BA now seems to be above the recent turbulence.