AIRLINES IN CONVERSATION
Gulf carriers see ‘staggering’ rise in premium traffic
EMIRATES, ETIHAD AND QATAR AIRWAYS have seen business and first class traffic soar, according to booking data analysed by travel technology firm Amadeus.
Comparing all bookings made in the Amadeus system from 2014 to 2015 on the top 10 origins and destinations (O&D) between Europe and Asia Pacific, the three main Gulf carriers saw first class passenger volumes jump 67 per cent and business class by 47 per cent.
Amadeus said this “staggering” rise in premium bookings was complemented with a seven per cent increase in passenger volumes across all cabin classes for these routes. The data was analysed by Amadeus IT Group’s Travel Intelligence team, and takes into account all bookings in the Amadeus system made via traditional and online travel agencies globally. It includes one-way and round-trip bookings for each O&D. Speaking to BBT, Maher Koubaa, VP for Middle East and
North Africa, Airline Distribution and IT at Amadeus, said the growing trend in luxury travel, as well as a positive economic environment in the Asia-Pacific region, has contributed to the rise in premium traffic.
“I think the trend has been helped by the macro-economic growth in the APAC region,” said Koubaa. “We have seen luxury travel increase in the industry and most of the new growth from that is in markets like India, Thailand and south-east Asia, and the Gulf carriers are doing great things to capture this growing trend.” Looking at 2016 and onwards Koubaa predicts some “softness” in these trends due to global economic issues but still forecasts the luxury travel sector to grow.
Paul Revel talks to Keith Graham, managing director of Belfast-based TMC Selective Travel Management
TMC. You gauge it – is that procurement team going to engage with you? If they’re not going to work with you getting people onboard it’s a waste of your resources.
Keith Graham
LAST YEAR SELECTIVE TRAVEL MANAGEMENT moved into a new HQ, the historic Murray’s Exchange building, a listed 19th-century former tobacco factory. The TMC, which also operates in Dublin, currently has more than 100 staff.
Why are you expanding the business?
GROUND TRANSPORT
UBER TO MERGE WITH ‘FIERCE’ CHINA RIVAL
UBER HAS AGREED TO MERGE ITS BUSINESS IN CHINA with rival Didi Chuxing – the dominant ride-hailing company in the country. The $35 billion deal will see Uber China get a 20 per cent stake in Didi Chuxing.
Uber has been struggling to
break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor.
20 BBT September/October 2016
Earlier this year, its CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick admitted the company was losing around $1 billion a year as it faced “fierce competition” from its rival.
The rivalry had led both companies to heavily subsidise their journeys. The merger is likely to see fewer such subsidies.
The last year has been very successful for us. In mid-2015 we won a share of the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium contract. We are one of six suppliers. This is now merged with the London Universities consortium; the total framework travel budget is estimated at £100 million. Local government was another big contract for us this year, for the Northern Ireland civil service departments, agencies and public bodies.
Is the RFP process a massive use of your resources? It is a big resource; we have a bid writer here that spends a lot of his time doing it. But I think from our experience [with the university frameworks], it’s picking and choosing what you want to tender for. For example, an institution could be spending £2 million but only £500k is with the TMC and the rest is maverick. So it’s a massive achievement to get that spend into the
How do you differentiate from other providers? It’s clear that we’re not a call centre. I don’t want to be perceived as a massive call centre. The bookers are dedicated to you as a client. They’ll get to know your likes and dislikes, and build a relationship pretty quickly. I think that’s where we’re being successful. In January this year we changed the way we offer out-of-hours service: we have a core team of homeworkers on our payroll, who are not just there for emergencies – they continually work through the night and can provide full services.
To what extent is duty-of-care a factor for your clients? It’s the big issue at the moment. I was at a conference in London recently and a woman asked me how we could help with duty-of-care. She said in times of need for DoC she just needs to put one phone call into her TMC. I said: ‘If your TMC is so great at being proactive, why are you contacting them for your DoC needs?’ What we do is contact the traveller on your behalf. If your TMC is working proactively, they’re analysing who’s on location in those areas, contacting the travellers and then reporting back to you that issues are resolved. It’s that mindset which is becoming more and more prevalent among the corporates that we see.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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