UAE carriers stole the show at the CAPA aviation awards, but the region's airports were snubbed
Etihad Airways and flydubai have been named airlines of the year by aviation analysts CAPA.
The Abu Dhabi-owned carrier was awarded CAPA Airline of the Year for its unique partnership strategy, while flydubai received the top accolade for low cost carrier (LCC).
“The efficiency of the aviation industry is strangled by archaic ownership and control rules that prevent cross border mergers and rationalisation of airline offerings. More than any other factor this has effectively confined the industry to drastic financial underperformance. Faced with this roadblock, no single full service airline has done more than Etihad Airways to challenge the status quo with its remarkable strategic partnership model,” CAPA executive chairman Peter Harbison said in a statement.
“Recognising that organic growth was not likely to generate the rapid global expansion it needed, Etihad Airways has relied on an extensive network of codeshares and most notable, established its own ‘equity alliance’, cemented by minority holdings in airlines around the world. But the strategy is more than just establishing a range of equity relationships to cement its alliance – in itself a unique development in global aviation. It has also generated shared benefits for each of its partners – such as mutual traffic feed and branding, joint purchasing and common frequent flyer programs and more – that have stimulated additional business, not only for Etihad Airways.
“In a new world of aviation partnerships, Etihad Airways is at the strategic vanguard of equity relationships, as a growing number of airlines – notably in Asia – line up to emulate the success of this truly original model.”
flydubai was recognised as being “the world’s most innovative and influential LCC”.
“With afleet of some 40 737s, flydubai recently became the Middle East’s largest LCC and has laid out an aggressive long-term plan to more than quadruple in size,” Harbison said.
“It has successfully built a presence in smaller markets previously not served to Dubai. flydubai has established exceptional levels of staff productivity, even by LCC standards, and built solid ancillary revenue streams that have flowed into rising levels of profitability.
“A successful hybrid product strategy has also boosted yields. The outlook for 2015 and beyond is very bright.”
However, the Gulf’s airports, among the largest and newest in the world, lost out in the airport categories.
Madrid Barajas Airport was named the best of the airports with more than 25 million passengers annually, while the smaller category winner was Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport.
IAG CEO Willie Walsh, who is chief of British Airways, was named airline CEO of the year.
I have to fly to a neighboring GCC country for business and always use FLYDUBAI, but I will note a few issues that I have observed as they continuously increase their routes in the region. Firstly, I continuously see low-level workers who have to abandon their luggage because their rude employers book their tickets without purchasing baggage. I want to see a free 10 kilos for baggage so maybe this will help this situation. I have only seen 3 people purchase TV in the few years that I have been flying so minimal FREE TV should be provided in the seats for economy. Also, I think they should have a mileage program, because they have started to look like a full carrier, not a discount carrier with the new business class sections. Truthfully, at the end of the day after paying for luggage, TV and food I could have taken Emirates economy. For the record, I fly them because they fly into a special terminal in Kuwait and I avoid their horrible main airport.
