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| Photo: Qatar Airways intends to keep 5-star service quality as a premium airliner even in economic downturns and in fact Qatar Airways is the only airline in the Middle East that received 5-star rating from Sky Tracks," the country manager for Qatar Airways Jere Tala said in an interview with AJnews | ||
Amid the economic crisis, some airliners have tried to handle the difficulties in management by going under the global alliance at a cost of quality services to customers or by tapping into the fastest growing market such as low cost flights.
However, the country manager for Qatar Airways in South Korea Jere Tala seems to have different prospective on the market.
"Qatar Airways intends to keep 5-star service quality as a premium airliner even in economic downturns and in fact we are the only airline in the Middle East that received 5-star rating from Sky Tracks," he said in an interview with AJnews.
"I personally see Low Cost Carriers(LCC) are very important part of aviation businesses and they will only grow and become more important, but it will stay more like regional ones. Since Qatar Airways pursue a premium airline worldwide, I think LLCs are quite different segment or have different marketing type that Qatar airways is using to satisfy the customers."
Admitting that current economic situation in 2009 is worse than any other years with intensifying competition threaten the industry, Tala said that countries and companies in middle east region have not been affected so badly as the rest of the world.
Following is an excerpt from the interview with him.
AJnews: When it comes to Middle East, the first thing crossing Korean's mind would be either Dubai or tremendous oil money. Qatar is not so familiar city to Koreans so please introduce about the country and your company as well.
JT: Obviously, Dubai is the most well-known city in the Middle East. This is kind of financial hub of the middle east, but Qatar again is a little different from Dubai. The country is experiencing the growing period with a lot of new hotels coming in a few years time and a new airport being built in a couple of years. I would say it is a future destination.
And Qatar Airways is also very young airline with only 10-year-old history, but it is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world. We have currently over 60 aircrafts with over 80 destinations and we have more than 200 new aircrafts on order. So we have clearly huge extension plans even this year called the worst period since the Great Depression. A new international airport in Doha is likely to boost sales once it is ready for operation in a couple of years.
AJnews: There is big controversy over the disputes in Gaza Strip. Do you think that current situation in Gaza gave any effects on the business?
JT: First of all, Qatar airways do not fly to Israel and to my understanding the dispute is over. Fortunately I do not see any big effects from the war onto the business.
AJnews: What do you think the air traveling market is going to be like in 2009?
JT: It is true that economic situation is very serious at the moment and I think Korea might go through very hard times in 2009 especially because of Korean Won depreciation. But at the same time I would say that our main market , the middle east, has not been affected so badly as the rest of the world. And we have not really witnessed business travels slowing down because there are still a lot of businesses going on between Korea and Middle East. So, I have a very positive focus for 2009 just like your financial minister saying that it should be better for the second half of the year.
AJnews: What kind of strategy does Qatar Airways have in place to cope with current economic crisis?
JT: We always have a different kind of marketing activities going on with no exception at the moment. We mainly deal with travel agents for sales in South Korea, so Korean language website where you can do everything in Korean is available for agents as well as were small- and mid- sized entrepreneurs doing business in Korea and Middle East.
We are offering the frequent flyers program which is combinable with Asiana, one of the well-known airliners in Korea. Asiana card holders can get the benefits such as storing mileages.
A special website programe for individuals to log into the programs they can get certain benefits such as mileage and incentives will be launched this spring. We are very looking forward to this website because we believe it is very beneficial for those smaller businesses who can get some benefits, even they're not huge companies like Samsung.
AJnews: Eastar has sparkled up the market demands for low cost air traveling in Korea, offering less than 20,000 won flight from Seoul to Jeju. What do you think of low cost carriers such as Ryanair and Eastar and is there any possibility for your company to offer similar services or to share the market with Korean low cost carriers (LLCs) by expanding the alliance in Korea?
JT: First, I want to mention that Qatar Airline is one of the top premium companies in the industry. In fact, Qatar is one of the handful airlines that have 5 stars rating by Sky Tracks and the only airline in the Middle East with that title.
We intend to keep our quality service as it is now. Qatar airways has several things which are first in the world. For example, we have the world first premium terminal in Doha where the whole terminal building is for business and first class only.
So I want to say that my company is a quite different segment or using different marketing type that LLCs are using. We consider our service premium even in such a bad economy like this year.
I personally see LLCs are very important part of the business and they will only grow and become more and more important in the aviation industry. But it will stay more regional one which is a lot different from Qatar.
Though Qatar does not belong to any alliances including OneWorld or Sky Teams, my company has a several bilateral cooperation in each region like we work very closely with Asiana in Korea and Lufthanza in Europe and United Airlines in U.S.
AJnews: What was it like living in Korea since the posting to country manager for Korea?
JT: Korea is a great place even it is very challenging to come here during the special times with economic downturn. I see this is different from the previous experiences while I was in other cities like Hong Kong or China. Nevertheless, I believe it will go away and it is going to be interesting to learn and see what is happening and how to beat the downturns.
The best thing for me to come to Korea is that Internet speed is so fast that I can even watch television from my home country, which I have never been able to do so.
AJnews: AJnews has just turned into its 1st anniversary last November and tried to take a next step toward better economic daily paper in Korea. Please give our readers any remarks on our newspaper.
JT: First of all, congratulations on its first anniversary and I am happy to see things in Chinese. I wish you the best of the luck and I am sure your newspaper will become the winner out of this time.
By Kirim Shin
신기림 기자 kirimi99@ajnews.co.kr
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Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com