Demand for Mideast air travel still rising – analyst

TRAVEL TRENDS Booking agents in the Middle East say they have seen a small but significant growth in demand for flights.

Air travel demand in the Middle East is slowly rising following a slight increase during this year’s opening quarter, an industry analyst has claimed.

Travelport, a global distribution systems (GDS) provider for the travel industry, confirmed to Arabian Business on Sunday that bookings through agents in this region are up 0.94 percent.

In contrast, Europe and Asia have suffered a 12.9 percent and 15.1 percent decline during the same period.

Earlier this year, some travel agents insisted advanced airline ticket bookings were down 50 percent as travellers with stricter budgets stopped flying.

But Travelport’s latest figures suggest air travel is still in demand – albeit at far lower rates than in previous years.

While the increase is good news for the Middle East, Travelport said demand in this region is 3.2 percent down compared to last year’s opening quarter.

Rabih Sa’ab, Travelport’s Middle East vice president, told reporters that the local travel industry has fared far better than other regions amid the economic downturn.

He added demand for ticket reservation systems, such as the GDS used by travel agents, would stay high in 2009.

Online bookings are proving increasingly popular, but Sa’ab said he expects GDS to remain the preferred choice for segment for single journeys.

According to Travelport figures, 80 percent of all bookings are carried out via GDS with more than 6.5 million segments (single journeys) reserved in March.

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