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Westminster Group sees airport passenger numbers rise as Ebola situation improves

Published: 09:11 13 Apr 2015 BST

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Security specialist Westminster (LON:WSG) said it was seeing an increase in airport passenger numbers as the Ebola situation in West Africa has markedly improved.

The group also updated on its ferry contract secured last year, saying the flagship 38.9 metre, 200 seat vessel 'Sierra Queen' was due to arrive at the end of this month (April).

As reported last month, the new ship is larger and more expensive than originally envisaged because passenger volumes are expected to be more than initially thought.

Peter Fowler, Westminster's chief executive, said: "Sierra Queen is a superb and very impressive 'flag ship' vessel for our new ferry operations in Sierra Leone and we are delighted she will be arriving in country this month to provide a much needed professional and fast ferry transit service between Freetown International Airport and the capital, Freetown.

He added: "In March we saw over 9,000 passengers passing through the airport which was the highest levels seen for 7 months and an indication of returning confidence. 

"With resumption of flights and increasing passenger numbers passing through the airport, together with the volumes of local traffic, we anticipate that there will be a significant and growing demand for our premium ferry service.

"The continuing improvement in passenger numbers, following the easing of the Ebola situation, has had a positive impact on the financial performance of our airport operations in the first quarter of this year, marking a turnaround from the inevitable adverse impact the crisis had on the operation in the second half of 2014. We expect this positive trend to continue as recovery gathers pace."

The company noted that Air Maroc have added an extra flight to schedules and will now run four flights a week from April and Kenya Airways have flights scheduled for the end of the month. 

Other airlines are expected to begin operations in coming months.

In Sierra Leone, 25 cases of Ebola were reported in the last week of March, compared with over 300 cases a week in the height of the outbreak.

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