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- Global regulations, passenger confidence and flexible airline propositions key to sector recovery
- Short haul leisure travel to recover first – massive pent-up demand
- Industry will fully recover by Q3 2024
The health of the Middle East aviation sector was in focus this week at Arabian Travel Market 2021 which concludes today (Wednesday 19 May) at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Regional experts were debating the state of the Middle East aviation industry and a timetable for its recovery, particularly after significant announcements recently by Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, relaxing travel and social restrictions.
The conference session entitled ‘Aviation – the key to rebuilding international travel, restoring confidence, global solutions and building business’, was moderated by TV and radio presenter Phil Blizzard, with guest panelists including, George Michalopoulos
Chief Commercial Officer, Wizz Air; Hussein Dabbas, General Manager Special Projects for MEA region, Embraer and John Brayford, President, The Jetsets.
Overall, the panel was bullish about the recovery citing pent-up demand, which could initially outstrip the availability of flights, until airlines resume their regular pre-COVID scheduled services and routes, particularly on domestic and regional routes which they agreed would be the first to recover.
“Domestic and regional leisure passenger traffic will recover first. This will be driven by massive pent-up demand, helped by relaxed ‘local’ restrictions and improved consumer confidence,” said Dabbas.
“This trend will ultimately increase demand from airlines for smaller more cost-effective aircraft - a maximum of 120 passengers, on direct routes, with increased frequency of service,” he added.
To illustrate his point, Dabbas pointed to the Air France-KLM pre-pandemic decision to order 30 A220 jets while announcing the retirement of their A380 fleet, in a bid to improve the airline’s fuel efficiency and costs.
“IATA estimates that domestic markets could recover to 96% of pre-crisis levels in the second half of this year, a 48% improvement over 2020 and a return to pre-COVID levels in the third quarter of 2024,” said Dabbas.
Talking about improving consumer confidence, the panel agreed that there had to be some form of global regulation, a collaboration between industry bodies, governments, airports and airlines, that would be easy to understand and universal.
“As it stands the quarantine rules and other COVID regulations are confusing, they need simplifying. Governments should concentrate on PCR testing and vaccines. Passengers need a secure source of information covering the flight and the destination,” said Dabbas, “We are a one-world industry.”
Michalopoulos added, “Vaccine passports are the way forward and it is also important that we communicate just how safe onboard air conditioning is. Some people think that recirculated air in planes is not safe, that simply isn’t true. Aircraft have filtering systems which are as efficient as hospital ICUs.”
Looking to the future, Brayford an industry stalwart whose company The Jetsets is pioneering fractional ownership in private business jets, said that airlines would need a clear plan moving forward.
“A niche today might become a mainstream trend tomorrow, so no opportunity should be overlooked, the way in which some airlines have supplemented reduced passenger numbers with cargo is a good example. Flexibility and managing costs will also be key.”
Running through until today (Wednesday 19 May) at the Dubai World Trade Centre, this year’s event has 1,300 exhibitors from 62 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesisa, Malaysia, South Korea, the Maldives, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico and the US, underscoring the strength of ATM’s reach.
ATM 2021’s show theme is appropriately ‘A New Dawn for Travel & Tourism’ and spread across nine halls.
This year, for the first time in ATM history, a new hybrid format will mean a virtual ATM running a week later, from 24-26 May, to complement and reach a wider audience than ever before. ATM Virtual, which made its debut last year, proved to be a resounding success attracting 12,000 online attendees from 140 countries.
-Ends-
Registration is still open for ATM 2021, go to https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb/enquire.html
You can view the event highlights via the following links:
Day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtF7DkO3mE
Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXh0FTXHxMs
Day 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzvWsMcmqJI
For more news about ATM, please scan the below QR code or visit: https://hub.wtm.com/category/press/atm-press-releases/
About Arabian Travel Market (ATM)
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), now on its 28th year, continues to be the focal point for the Middle East’s resilient and ever-changing travel and tourism landscape and prides itself on being the hub of all travel and tourism ideas, providing a platform to discuss insights on the ever-changing industry, share innovations and unlock endless business opportunities. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html #IdeasArriveHere
Next in-person event: Sunday 16 to Wednesday 19 May 2021, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
Next virtual event: Monday 24 to Wednesday 26 May 2021
About Arabian Travel Week
Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2021. It includes ATM Virtual, Arival Dubai and Travel Forward – a new travel tech and hospitality innovation event launching this year. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, the International Travel & Investment Conference (ITIC) Summit, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) forum, as well as the Saudi and China Summits. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, Arabian Travel Week will take place in Dubai from Sunday 16th to Thursday 26th May 2021. www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html
About Reed Exhibitions Global
Reed Exhibitions is a leading global events business. It combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 400 events in 22 countries across 43 industry sectors, attracting more than 7 million participants. Our events leverage industry expertise, large data sets and technology to enable our customers to connect face-to-face or digitally and generate billions of dollars of revenues for the economic development of local markets and national economies around the world. Reed Exhibitions is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics for professional and business customers. www.reedexhibitions.com
About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs over 33,000 people, of whom almost half are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX. The market capitalisation is approximately £33bn, €39bn, $47bn.*
*Note: Current market capitalisation can be found at http://www.relx.com/investors
About World Travel Market
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises leading travel events, online portals and virtual platforms across four continents, generating more than $7.5 billion of industry deals. The events are:
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. Around 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media visit ExCeL London every November, generating over £3.71 billion in travel industry contracts.
Next event: Monday 1 November to 3 November 2021 at ExCel London
WTM Virtual, is the WTM Portfolio virtual platform, created to offer global delegates the chance to arrange one-to-one virtual meetings, to do business, attend conference sessions and roundtables, take part in speed networking and more. WTM Virtual embrace the global leading travel shows in one platform.
WTM Latin America attracts around 19,000 participants – 11,586 unique. The trade show, which takes place in São Paulo, has a worldwide audience that meets to establish the direction of the travel industry. The event is recognised for attracting a high level of professionals from the segment, including buyers and travel agents. It also offers programmes with qualified content and plenty of opportunities for networking and generating business that is relevant to the travel industry.
Next event: Tuesday 3 to Thursday 5 August 2021 – Expo Center Norte, São Paulo http://latinamerica.wtm.com/
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 6,000 travel industry professionals attend Africa’s leading inbound and outbound travel and tourism market. WTM Africa delivers a proven mix of hosted buyers, media, pre-scheduled appointments, on-site networking, evening functions and invited travel trade visitors.
Next event: Wednesday 7 to Friday 9 April 2021 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/
NATHALIE VISELE
Director
Indigo Icon Tower, Jumeirah Lakes Towers
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 4 365 2711
E-mail: nathalie.visele@shamalcomms.com
Website: www.shamalcomms.com
© Press Release 2021
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