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In line with the increasing relations between the Middle East
and Indonesia, flight traffic between the two has been growing rapidly
in the last two years.
First launched in July 2003, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) national
airline Etihad Airways has been taking advantage of the development and
has now become one of the region's fastest growing airlines.
Since its inaugural flight in November 2003, the airline has increased
the number of destinations by at least one route each month. Currently
it offers flights to 35 destinations across the Middle East, Europe,
North America, Africa and Asia.
Recently, Etihad Airways country manager for Indonesia Geoff Rhodes
talked to The Jakarta Post about the potential of the airline business
in the Southeast Asia region, and Indonesia in particular. Below are
the excerpts of the interview:
The 9/11 tragedy five years ago affected almost every aspect of the
airline business. How do you observe its impact on the Southeast Asia
region?
The 9/11 terrorist attack has affected aviation globally. However, it
is felt much more in the Atlantic and the routes to America and Europe.
There, certainly aviation numbers have gone down globally. But I think
the 9/11 has had the same sort of impact here as it has had elsewhere.
Still, there are two areas that have been growing quite strongly in the
last four or five years, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore have great potential,
the same is true for the Middle East, such as in UAE, gulf countries
and Saudi Arabia. Both regions are also developing economic ties, trade
ties.
All those routes have been going strong, all are about 80 percent full.
We are looking to grow further in Southeast Asia and
we will be looking to start the service in Kuala Lumpur early next year
and also in Beijing, China.
How do you see the potential for Indonesia?
The potential for Indonesia as part of our network is very important.
If you look at GDP growth for Indonesia, which I think is some 6
percent, it is quite strong. It is important for us to know that and to
see that because it will help develop our routes for us. The trade
between Indonesia and UAE is running into billions of dollars every
year.
Last year, the trade volume reached US$1.25 billion and this year's
first semester it is valued at $661 million, or an 18.24 percent
increase as compared to last year's first semester. We have the list
from the UAE Embassy, at least 35 companies in Jakarta have been doing
business with UAE and that list is growing all the time. It underlines
the development between the two countries.
Any immediate plans for expansion here? We have six flights a week at
the moment; we have the agreement from the government to increase it to
12 times a week by next year. Eight of those will be using Etihad
Airways and the additional
four will be from our partners. We will fly up to eight times a week,
but we can also fly an additional four flights a week if we work with
Indonesian partners such as Garuda and other carriers.
We want to take advantage of places like Bali. The market in Europe for
Bali is very strong because of its tourism. There is great potential to
attract European guests to Indonesia, to visit places like Bali and
Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara). We'll start to set up packages, which
include hotels, to attract people with complete services.
We are considering working with Indonesian airlines so that we have the
ability to offer connecting services to domestic points in Indonesia.
We'll have to ensure that it will be hassle-free connection that could
fly our passengers to principal cities in Indonesia, including Surabaya
(East Java) and Medan (North Sumatra). That is our top priority for
2007.
What are Etihad business targets in the near future?
From the current 35 destinations, we will be looking to increase it to
70 destinations by 2010. We now have 24 aircraft and are adding new
airplanes every month. We have ordered 29 aircraft from Airbus and
Boeing, a total transaction of $8 billion.
I expect we'll put in new orders for aircraft next year, because if we
are going to serve 70 destinations, we will need a fleet of
approximately 50 airplanes.
Etihad currently carries 1.2 million passengers a year, and in the
future, we aim to carry 3 million a year. We are developing our
business class. We are seeing quite a big increase in business and
leisure to the Middle East and also to Europe. Like most other
airlines, we also carry a lot of worker traffic, but our core business
is flying businesspeople and leisure. We also fly a lot of people for
Umroh (a minor pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia) and the Haj tour to Jeddah.
For Indonesia, we want to make sure that we carry more businesspeople
and more people on leisure trips. The demand for worker traffic is
actually quite high in Indonesia, roughly about 5,000 guests a month,
while businesspeople are in the range of 30 to 40 percent less than
that. Our main business strategy is to be the best airline in the
world, to serve businesspeople, and to carry more and more tourists. We
certainly have worker traffic but do not necessarily want to increase
that segment. We are looking to increase the leisure and business
segment.
What strategies are you developing to achieve that?
Etihad has just launched a new approach to serving passengers. We want
people to think that they are coming to a hotel or a home when they are
boarding the plane. So we created the Etihad Guest program, introduced
worldwide on Aug. 30. In the program, we call our passengers guests and
we refer to different parts of the aircraft as a home and not a cabin.
Our service is similar to what you see in a hotel.
We see that the current trend in flying has become more personalized.
We see it is very important particularly for business guests. So they
will feel comfortable flying with us and it will make them want to fly
with us again. We want to give them a new experience when they fly by
offering three guest zones -- Diamond (executive), Pearl (business) and
Coral (economy).
The program is another means by which we can get closer to our guests.
We know more about our guests, including their personal history, their
likes, their dislikes. We serve them much better in the aircraft. We
know the city, eating and magazine preferences. So as the program
develops, when a guest checks in, the crew will have information about
the guest and our staff are trained to treat people as such.
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