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Five minutes with...Ibrahim Kamal
Arabian Travel News grabbed outgoing IATA country manager Ibrahim Kamal for a quick chinwag to get his opinions on the fuel crisis, low-cost carriers and sustainability issues.
Kamal on the airline fuel crisis: None of the airlines have handled this well. Fuel prices increased very steeply over a short period of time and they panicked. They immediately took the decision to increase prices without properly informing the public.
Some senior airline executives are saying their airlines are covering part of the cost from the rise in fuel prices and not funneling the full price down to the customers. Is this true? We just don't know. There needed to be more transparency from the start, now airlines need to be more professional.
Kamal on the surge in low-cost carriers (LCCs) entering the market: I admit it; I am surprised at how successful the LCCs have become. When they first started emerging three or four years ago I couldn't see that they could have an impact in our type of market, but I was wrong.
There is no doubt that LCCs have taken a significant part of the market share from the traditional airlines. They have started out with a good plan and stuck to it. As a consequence, the bigger airlines have had to increase the amount of economy fares and flights on offer. Suddenly they have this competition and they have had to respond to it.
Kamal on environmental issues: Some airlines are scared that governments can impose charges or taxes to force them to suddenly be more environmentally conscious.
European airlines like BA and Lufthansa are making progress, but others don't like it. Environmental issues are not taken as seriously in our region as they are in America or Europe. In the Middle East, governments are not considering any actions or threats against airlines on environmental grounds so they are under no real pressure to change at the moment.
Kamal on the power of online distribution channels: Online distribution is definitely growing, but it is growing slowly. We have two generations here, those more than forty years old who are more traditional in their booking methods and those aged under forty who are maybe more advanced in terms of technology, but might not have the credit card to make the booking.
This is definitely something that will grow in the future though, so we'll see what is happening 10 years from now It will be interesting to see how the industry has evolved.
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