Disappearing lading bills, Russian spies, the Beatles and an elephant on the runway…it was all in a day’s work when I first started out in the travel business.
I arrived in Cairo, Egypt, following the exodus of Palestinians from Palestine in late 1949.
In Cairo I learned typing, shorthand and book keeping at ‘Ecole Fax’ and later that year I moved to Kuwait to join my half-brother and sister to work for the Al Ghanim group, one of the most prominent business houses in Kuwait and the agent for BOAC, which is now British Airways.
I was 17 years old and at the time I didn’t even know how to write a letter in English – nowadays it’s the language that I use for 90 per cent of my businesses.
I was a junior clerk, loading and off-loading aircraft and filling out the load sheets.
Initially, our office was a tent at the airport and one day the Shamal wind blew up taking all the aircraft ships’ papers with it – can you imagine the chaos it caused?
One of my most amusing memories is during my early years in Kuwait when a York freighter, the plane used by the British to carry soldiers during World War II, came in to land carrying a cargo of animals from the Far East destined for Boston Zoo, in the US.
During the landing the brake hydraulics malfunctioned and, though the pilot managed to park safely, we realised the plane could not take off again until a replacement part had been brought out from London, which we were told would take three days.
In the meantime we were left with a plane full of animals in 42 deg C desert heat!
There were monkeys, parrots and all sorts of birds and animals.
Some died, others escaped and we were left with a baby elephant weighing 1,250 kg and no idea at all what to do with it!
With no telex at that time to seek advice, we approached Kuwait Oil Company which had a veterinary officer who told us the elephant needed to be fed with bananas and exercised. Easy for him to say!
In those days we lived out of cans; Heinz and Campbells food and had a shipment of fresh vegetables once a week from Lebanon.
To feed the elephant we bought up the whole supply of bananas, about 15 crates, from that shipment.
To get the elephant off the plane we had to build a platform for him because it was a low aircraft, we covered it with wood shavings to stop him slipping and tied ropes round his legs, each held by four men, to help him off the aircraft.
Once he was off the plane, he was like any other baby animal, wanted to run and stretch his legs – and we had to run with him!
The plane was eventually repaired after three-and-a-half days and the jumbo was loaded-up for the rest of his journey, which was uneventful as far as I know.
It was not all fun and games in Kuwait though. The Al Ghanim group was instrumental in the creation of Kuwait Airways by virtue of co-ordinating a management agreement between BOAC and Kuwaiti entrepreneurs including Yusuf Ahmed Al Ghanim, Nisf Yusuf Al Nisf, Ahmad Saud Al Khaled and members of the Al Hamad, Al Fulaij and Al Sqar families.
In 1958 I was made general manager and in 1960 we established the first Arab travel office in London at 4 Baker Street.
From Kuwait I moved to Beirut in May 1961 as the first non-British sales manager in the history of BOAC.
I adored Lebanon, I believe it is a unique country and in those days it was certainly one of the most exciting. Beirut was the centre of intrigue and the Saint Georges Hotel was ‘the’ place to be; it was famous as the retreat of ‘spies’.
I used to go to the hotel regularly, my job meant it was important to be out and about meeting people and making contacts.
I met both Kim Philby (the double agent) and Guy Burgess at the Saint Georges Hotel; the place was full of spies and informants and at the time they were living there.
Among my most memorable experiences in Lebanon was when The Beatles transited Beirut en route to Australia. It was 1964 and Beatlemania was at its height and I felt it would be safest to keep the thousands of screaming teenagers, who had come to greet the group, at a distance.
Of course, teenagers being teenagers, some of them managed to get through and at one point we had to turn the water hoses on them.
Girls were thrusting their autograph books at me to get The Beatles to sign and, at one point, when I went to a crowd of girls to hand a book back, one of them even bit my thumb!
During my time in Beirut the Chairman of BOAC Sir Giles Guthrie paid a visit with his wife Lady Hazel. The day before his arrival my boss at the time, Ray Bingham, was laid-up in hospital with appendicitis and I was given the assignment of overseeing our chairman’s entire visit.
It all went well and some time later I received a letter advising me that I had been nominated as a candidate to undertake a year’s management training in England.
Following a number of interviews with general managers, personnel and marketing officials, I was accepted and became the first non-British person to attend the course.
It was a non-airline course, more geared towards management, human relations, industrial relations, technical innovation and effective speaking. I didn’t realise until later that I had been personally nominated by Sir Giles, most probably the chairman was impressed with the way I handled his visit to Lebanon.
In 1971 I moved to Bahrain as BOAC marketing development manager for the Gulf Region and in 1974 I struck out on my own setting up Unitag but that’s another story.
Jamil Wafa is founder and executive chairman of Unitag and Magnum Holdings, the parent company of Magnum Events and Exhibitions Management, the organiser of the Bahrain International Travel Expo (BITE).
by Jamil Wafa