Taffaha defends Arab carriers to US Aviation Club and predicts further growth

Abdul Wahab Teffaha, Secretary General of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation has given a rousing defence of Middle Eastern carriers at the International Aviation Club in Washington where he was guest of honour.

He told the audience that lots of myths have been created about the Gulf carriers in particular. “That doesn’t make them true, He said. “The myth of over-capacity is one,” he said. “Although history shows that Arab airlines have been meeting their expansion with actual growth, our average capacity deployment per aircraft is above 200 seats. Our load factor is in the high 70's , year round.

“The second myth is that we are out to conquer the world of aviation. The reality is the only conqueror in aviation is the customer. If an airline was able to respond to the requirements of customers by providing him or her with value for money and a good service, then that customer will definitely put his or her confidence in that airline. If your cost base is high, if your obligations are making you slow to move, and if you’re losing your competitive edge, beware that the customer is not a charity, and will not stick with you as an act of kindness.”

Teffaha praised Europe for its liberalisation but said that the concept was being held back by a lack of slots at major airports.

“This, more often than not, nullifyies the liberalization of traffic rights,” he said. “So yes you can achieve an open skies agreement with the EU and yes you may have no restrictions on capacity and frequency but no you cannot have the last step of a free market access, which is actually flying an airplane to that major European destinations. Is that a level playing field? I doubt it is.”

Teffaha told his American audience from the major airlines and aerospace companies that the Arab carriers, across the board were delivering value for money, quality of service and an excellent infrastructure as well as being environmentally savvy, focussed on cost - “Our unit cost is comparable to that of the low cost airlines in Europe,” he said.

He also said that AACO’s research suggested the Arab travel market is still far from mature. “ The passenger to population ratio in the Arab world is 1:3. It is almost 2:1 in the US, and 1.1:1 in Europe. I wish to underline here that in spite of the current pains of the Arab worlds, in a future where transparency rules, the growth of traffic in all segments will be even higher than that witnessed in the past,” he said.