With the summer travel season almost upon us, the airlines were out in force at Arabian Travel Market 2001 held in Dubai May 1-4. There will be a new player in the Gulf travel market this year with Delta Air Lines beginning westbound service on June 18 with three flights weekly from Dubai to New York JFK. The flights will take 16.5 hours with one stop in Cairo. Delta is the first American carrier to have a flight from Dubai to the US and Delta’s management was very frank in stating that the reason for the start of the new service was in the hope that the airline could get a piece of the lucrative Middle East traffic.
“Our studies have shown that we can expect healthy growth in traffic from the Middle East both connecting to global business markets and in the area of leisure travel,” said Richard C. Michaels, commercial director, UAE, Delta Air Lines. “We believe that passengers will be interested in our service because it will give them the potential to take a single carrier all the way from Dubai to the US and stay with that carrier onward through the US and the Americas.”
As of June, Delta will be the largest US carrier to have operations in the Middle East and North Africa. For passengers flying in peak vacation periods such as the Eid holidays and school vacations, Michaels offered assurances that Delta had a firm commitment to getting passengers to their destinations on time. Even in the event of the slim chance of a flight cancellation due to weather conditions or operational difficulties, Delta already has cooperation agreements in place with other airlines so that Delta passengers will be accommodated on alternate routes.
“Ever since Delta began to consider starting service to Dubai we have had a corporate cross divisional team in place to work out all the special arrangements — from ‘halal’ meals to Arabic speaking flight attendants — that would be needed for the comfort of our passengers,” explained Michaels. “We have made a commitment to the market and will constantly be considering other destinations within it. We believe that our ties to Dubai have never been closer and we believe that this is a good opportunity for Dubai to become recognized as a leisure destination for passengers from the Americas.”
Airlines already in the market will put up stiff competition for Delta. At ATM 2001, British Airways was showing off its new “Lounge in the Sky” in the Club World business class cabin. The seats are configured in unique forward and rearward facing pairs to create a lounge style environment. The armchair seats can be transformed by the touch of a button into flat beds a full six feet long.
BA has also redesigned their economy class to feature a new premium economy class called World Traveler Plus, which offers a wider seat with more legroom in a completely separate quieter cabin containing a maximum of five rows. With concern mounting over the health condition “Economy Class Syndrome,” such additional legroom is now an important consideration for many long-haul passengers. Travelers in this class are also allowed two pieces of carry-on baggage so a laptop case and personal carry-on bag may be accommodated.
New airline services will be operating from Jeddah with Swissair and Sabena offering an additional flight to Zurich bringing the number of flights weekly to three. Sri Lankan Airlines has added a third weekly flight on Sundays to Bahrain and Doha. Passenger numbers through Bahrain International Airport were up by 15 percent last year and now civil aviation authorities there have brought development plans forward. A new satellite building with eight additional air bridges is in the design phase and is expected to be operational by late 2003. An enlarged check-in area and more passenger holding lounges are due to open in June and the relocated and expanded duty free shopping complex is scheduled to open on Oct. 1.
After the move of the duty free shopping, existing airport lounges will be relocated to the mezzanine area and British Airways will add a lounge within a year. Additional projects include a car park and shopping mall to be completed in 2004. The main runway will be resurfaced during 2002 and a new flight simulator and training facility will come into service. A 120-room airport hotel will open later this year. Such improved facilities are sure to give Gulf Air a boost.
One airline that is already performing spectacularly is Emirates. It was voted Airline of the Year 2001 in the largest global survey of airline passengers. The vote was tabulated after 2.7 million ballots had been cast over nine months. The survey, conducted by Skytrax, requested passengers to rank airlines according to the quality of the product and services provided. Singapore Airlines came second, followed by Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Thai Airways.
Respondents were asked to rate the airport service at the airline’s home base, cabin seating standards, on-board catering, in-flight entertainment and cabin staff service. Out of the 2.7 million votes cast 32 percent of respondents regularly traveled in First or Business Class. Twenty-four percent traveled Economy for corporate reasons and 44 percent were leisure travelers in Economy Class.
Emirates is currently operating a fleet made up of Airbus and Boeing aircraft in which Airbus predominates. According to Shaikh Ahmad Al-Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirates is aiming at six-fold growth by 2010. The airline hopes to acquire between 100 and 175 aircraft over the next decade, expand its routes and consolidate destinations. In order to help finance its fleet expansion, Emirates will be floating a bond issue during the second half of 2001. The bonds will initially be offered to corporates with the goal of raising $150 million.
“When Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport is operational, we will have a collective capacity to handle 50 million passenger throughputs a year,” said Shaikh Ahmad, who also heads Dubai’s Department of Civil Aviation. “If deemed necessary, we will consider building more concourses and terminals to increase our passenger handling capacity.”
On July 1, Emirates will start a new non-stop service flying eight times weekly between Dubai and Hyderabad using Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The airline also announced last Thursday the launch of the new Fly Emirates Chelsea Football Club home kit. The new shirt design is part of a sponsorship deal by Emirates Airlines with Chelsea that is worth 24 million pounds over four years. Players will start wearing the “Fly Emirates” logo at their first home game of the new season in August.
Where in the world was Saudi Arabian Airlines?
Saudi Arabian Airlines was at ATM 2001 but they would have been better off staying at home. Last year they put on a similar performance and I politely made my complaint in private to the vice president of marketing at the airline. I suggested that if the Kingdom were to compete strongly in the regional tourism market they needed to put on a more professional display of their products and services. Unbelievably, not one thing changed at the Saudia stand from last year to this year.
While other airlines had staff on their stands attired professionally in corporate uniforms, with smiling faces and brochures ready, Saudi Arabian Airlines allowed secretarial staff from their Dubai operations to greet guests to their stand. These women were dressed in typical street wear. One bleached blonde was wearing spandex pants and a skin tight shirt.
When Arab News visited the Saudi Arabian Airlines’ stand in the late afternoon on the third day of the show we found visitors rummaging through promotional materials packed in boxes. The two hostesses were busy sitting in the rear of the stand, chatting to each other and drinking Arabic coffee. One was smoking.
Seeing a crowd forming around some of the open cartons an airline employee, Muhammad Mirza, assistant manager of Saudia World Holidays, came to check out the commotion. When he was asked why he wasn’t available to help the guests he answered that the exhibition was closed. It was only 6:15 and on Thursday the show did not close until 8:00 p.m.
An enormous amount of money was paid to host a stand at ATM 2001. With so much invested shouldn’t Saudi Arabian Airlines have worked harder to present its best face to the region’s travel trade?
