UNDERCUTTING SUPPLIERS
Good customer service is all well and good, but how does an agent deal with undercutting suppliers targeting clients directly?
“First and foremost that will not happen because if our suppliers did that – and we have experienced it the past – we will immediately flag it to them and we will cut them off,” states Kanoo without hesitation.
He acknowledges that relations can be strained between airlines and agents, but hints that agents still have an upper hand, as even airlines who have been “belligerent” in the past “thinking we are number one and everyone will come to us, have now turned around and said, actually you know what, can we work with you again?”
Advertisement
He explains: “In the past certain airlines from Europe thought the world revolved around them - but they discovered very quickly that it doesn’t. An airline from this region – I won’t mention their name – also thought the world revolved around them, but they discovered they could be replaced. Another airline from the region picked up their banner and discovered that that’s not the case. And it will continue to be the case.”
BUDGET AIRLINES
It’s clear that there is not much love lost between the travel boss and the region’s airlines. Kanoo has plenty more to add when asked about budget carriers, declaring: “Let us address the ‘myth’ of budget airlines: there are no budget airlines.
“Just because you sell five or six or even a dozen seats at a very low price – does that make you a budget airline? In a plane that carries 300 people, if ten of them or even, let’s be generous, 30 are a really low price, you’re talking 90 percent that are not. And unless I’ve got my maths wrong, that means the majority is not budget so by default it is not a budget airline.”
Another issue is the lack of ‘secondary’ airports.
“Budget airlines survive on secondary airports.” explains Kanoo. “Where are my secondary airports in the region? Look at Ryan Air, Easy Jet and all these discount airlines in Europe – I’m talking about flying out of Luton versus flying out of Heathrow, I’m also talking about a £20 or £100 flight versus £200 with BA.”
Kanoo is convinced that a genuinely budget airline has no hope in taking off while governments around the region continue to build “monstrous” airports.
“It comes down to the issue of whether the governments here will open up the skies.
Unfortunately the way I see it - Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai - each one is targeting 40 to 50 million passengers. I’m sure the CEOs of these airlines will disagree with me, but if I was to say, what are the criteria to fulfill a budget airline and are they fulfilling it? No. We don’t have that in airlines here.”
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
