FLYING HIGH
By admin • Jun 1st, 2010
Between Gulf Air, Etihad, Emirates, aren’t there too many Middle Eastern carriers?
If you look at South East Asia 30 years ago, Singapore created a fantastic airline with a small economy. Technology meant you can go two stops to Europe versus three or four stops in the past. Markets started to deregulate.
Three hours from Abu Dhabi, there’s the rest of the Middle East and the Indi¬an subcontinent, a huge population, that is still under-serviced.
If you look at the secondary cities of Europe, cities like Brussels, Dublin, Mi¬lan, they are taking traffic that use to go over the main European hubs. So you are seeing a shift of traffic from Asia hubs and European hubs to the Gulf. As you saw 30 years ago when the Asian hubs creat¬ed. So I would argue that time and new technology gives us a competitive edge and that’s what I am seeing in our growth.
In regards to low cost airlines, that’s business. The low cost model is not the same as the low cost model in Europe or in the U.S.A. What you see in the low cost carriers in the Middle East is that they are going to India, they are going beyond, so they target different markets.
So you are not comparing apples with apples. At the end of the day, the consumers decide how they travel.
But we had consolidation even in bigger markets like Europe: Iberia, Air France, etc. So why not Etihad and Emirates?
It’s not only about Etihad, it’s about the supply in the Gulf. You are talking about Qatar, you’re talking about Kuwait, you’re talking about many more…. I think what I have made clear is that the Gulf carriers have proven a new model. We can move traffic flows across the Gulf.
For example, we can move passen¬gers from the U.S., which is filled with a range of ethnic markets, to the Middle East. Then we can take Indians, for in¬stance, into the secondary cities of India, instead of Bombay or Delhi. That is the opportunity.
One criticism by some European air¬lines is that Gulf carriers are being heavily subsidized.
I don’t have to respond to those criticisms.
And what about the other airlines in the region?
You need to ask them that question.
