By Sarmad Qazi
Passengers in the region will increasingly benefit from a host of initiatives rolled out by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), including e-processing of check-ins and minimal baggage loss programmes, a senior official said yesterday.
In an interview with Gulf Times, IATA Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional vice president Dr Majdi Sabri said that the pilot programme on baggage improvement programme is already underway at the Doha International Airport.
“These steps are crucial since the aviation industry in the GCC region continues to experience growth despite a global financial crises dampening growth in the sector elsewhere in the world,” the official said.
The first eight months of 2009 alone saw an 8.4% growth in air traffic in the GCC as the worldwide rate dipped to 6%. And while the cargo traffic in the region fell by 3.5% (for the same period) elsewhere the rate was 18%.
“In 2001, the slice of MENA international air traffic was 5% while it increased to 10% in 2008,” Sabri said.
Programmes such as ‘fast travel’ initiative, currently being used at 18 regional airports, after introducing e-ticketing, make check-in easier using bar-coded boarding passes, Sabri said.
IATA serves as the go-between the travel agents and airlines, and also works closely with civil aviation authorities and the airports.
“We are also focusing on baggage efficiency using the baggage improvement programme. A pilot project for this is being tested in various regional airports including Doha,” Sabri added.
According to Sabri, the airlines in the region survived the financial downturn because of three reasons: First, regional airlines and civil aviation bodies established strong infrastructure (new airports) attracting transit traffic; secondly, the traffic within the Middle East is on the rise; and thirdly because of the connectivity and the strategic position of the region between the East and the West.
However, the financial crisis forced airlines to look for ways to increase their cash flows leading to reservations by travel agents, and through them the customers, he added.
One of the steps that were taken by the airlines was to strengthen the financial system; making the travel agents remit the money biweekly as opposed to the previous practice of leaner period. There is now suggestion of capping it at a week.
“That was decided by the regional AJPC as it is the body to organise the interval for funding, financial criteria, method of payment by agents and any other issue. IATA only distributes the stock of tickets (now only e-tickets) on behalf of airlines to the agents,” Sabri said.
The AJPC–Gulf (Agency Programme Joint Council), whose members are the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, is comprised of nine representatives from airlines and as many travel agents’ representatives. The total number of travel agents in AJPC-Gulf is 947.
“IATA MENA and AJPC-Gulf work closely. We implement what the AJPCs decide. The tremendous growth in the region is good but the area is still maturing, overall so to speak,” the official said, adding: “There is one thing that we would like to see in the region now, liberalization.” |
