Terry Daly. © Gulf News |
"The degree of the upward gradient is different in different markets," Terry Daly, general manager for the Mena, Central & South Asia regions, admitted yesterday.
"But we remain committed to the region, with the UAE being our fastest-growing, and our second most important market in the Middle East."
He pointed out that the UK national carrier, which had noted a sudden plummeting in ticket sales and bookings immediately after September 11 owing, primarily, to corporate travel advisories banning travel to the region, today sees loads both out of and into the UAE now steadily increasing, with bookings for December and January also now looking more healthy.
"Regional revenue comparisons might give a reasonable picture of a market's importance during normal times, but during other situations market shares vis a vis the competition might give a better feel of ground realities - and here, we are happy with our share which remain very healthy," he asserted.
He pointed out that the airline together with its alliance partners has been the largest European carrier in the Middle East for the past 70 years, and is determined to keep it that way.
He accepted that the ongoing global belt-tightening owing to lower loads had forced the carrier to cut three weekly flights to the UAE - two to Dubai, and one to Abu Dhabi - out of an earlier total of 21, but reiterated the company's determination to resume these as soon as possible.
"Even today, we have 103 weekly flights to 14 countries in the Mena region, and 54 flights to the GCC," he noted.
Judith Limburn, commercial manager for the UAE, Oman & Yemen, added that while the airline had to axe around 10 per cent of its staff, it had done so transparently, and in an open, caring manner.
Further, she suggested, the regional might actually have fared better when considering the overall lower headcount: "In our UAE operations, for instance, we cut costs by not filling existing vacancies or continuing with part-timers, which should result in only 5-10 per cent of staff having to be made redundant."
On the overall scenario, however, despite the carrier's stated plan of continuing with its fleet acquisition and replacement programme, Daly professed himself less than optimistic.
"While September 11 exposed the airline industry to its worst crisis ever, the world was even earlier in the grip of a recession. Further, fuel charges coupled with lowered fares are straining profitability, with added security concerns today having impelled us to impose a Dh20 'security surcharge' on flights into this sector."
All in all, he said 2002 will also remain "pretty tough", while refusing to hazard a guess on the industry's state of affairs in the period beyond.
