Many Different Carriers are Offering Flights to a Post-2015 Destination!
By Kenneth King, University of Edinburgh and NORRAG.
The new, once-mysterious destination of post-2015 is suddenly becoming better known, particularly in OECD countries. But many of the new carriers are still looking for passengers.
MDG (Mobility Does You Good) Airlines has picked up most of the traffic to date, but their license expires in 2015 and their renewal is still pending. A high-level publicity (HLP) event took place this year to rethink MDG Airlines’ options, and many of their recommendations were taken up by LDFA (Lowcost Departures for All) Airlines which was much favoured by United Nations’ travellers based in New York.
EFA (Elegance for All) Air was very popular back in the early 90s and 2000s, especially in Thailand and Senegal, but is currently looking for a new image and focus. The grapevine says that it is considering a merger and is opening a new route from Seoul in April 2015.
There are some less known but important new entrants to the field. OWG (Off We Go) Air is only known to specialist travellers, and they have an historical link to Brazil. They have had a number of rather low-level promotions, the next in November this year, but the public still doesn’t associate them strongly with particular destinations.
SDSN (Sustainable Direct North South) Airways is also a less known entity, but they have opened up many smaller destinations and are doing their best to provide evidence that their airline is the most reliable.
Readers of this blog who would like to get a quick insight into the ‘real story’ of the range of post-2015 processes and of the lobbies and advocacy groups supporting the veritable maze of post-2015 approaches, including the post-MDG, post-EFA, Open Working Group (OWG), and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) could do worse than skim the 50 short, sharp articles of NORRAG News (NN) 49 on the subject of Education and Development in the Post-2015 Landscapes. This is now available free-on-line on the NORRAG website, www.norrag.org. Half of the articles are written by commentators from the South.
They will rapidly get a sense of the sheer complexity of the post-2015 process, but readers with concerns about how education and skills are being located within these different approaches should find this particularly valuable. After a brief safari through NN49, readers should know much of what they need to know about post-MDG, post-EFA, OWG, and SDSN, as well as noting the significance of the UN Secretary General’s Report on a Life of Dignity for All (LDFA).
Kenneth King is the Editor of NORRAG News. He is an Emeritus Professor at the School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Email: Kenneth.king@ed.ac.uk