Abdul Wahab Teffaha:
Richard, may I say something? Thiery said that we will not complain as an airline about what the governments do. I will do all the complaining, Thiery, don’t worry about it.
Thiery Antinori:
It’s your job! It’s your job yes. You are better than me for that! That’s why my boss loves you so much, because you are representing the industry very well. Very good, excellent.
Abdul Wahab Teffaha:
Matur nuwun, matur nuwun.
Richard Maslen:
I think it’s important at these times particularly, that organizations like yourself are championing the industry. It’s now more important than ever that the airline voice is heard, and having too many different airlines saying similar things, but not a joined-up thing is a struggle. So yeah, it’s important. We all need to get back, and I think we’ve seen here today, some little issues with a little bit of technology. You know, technology has made big steps forward, it’s enabled us to continue doing business even while we’ve been stuck in our home environments. It’s not ideal though. And I think we are eager to get back to face-to-face. So, it’s a slow process and it has been a slow process, but you’ve mentioned about the sentiment of people to travel, from the airline perspective, if Mr. Antinori, or Mr. Al Alawi can answer, what are you seeing from an airline’s perspective in terms of that return to travel, and particularly the business travelers that, it’s a lifeblood of this industry, that a lot of people are talking about business travel being very slow to return. Are we seeing it return and to what levels are we seeing? So Mr. Al Alawi do you want to answer that first? I think you might be on mute still. I think we may be having a few issues there, so sorry. Mr. Antinori, we’ve been coming to you quite a lot here, sorry about that. But [crosstalk 00:19:43].
Thiery Antinori:
Thank you for that, thank you for that.
Richard Maslen:
Yeah, please. What is Qatar Airways seeing?
Thiery Antinori:
It’s very difficult to read in the crystal ball. I personally think that it will take time to reach the level of business travel preCOVID, but I share your view also that to make a good deal, to make a good transaction, to make a good business, you need to see your partners, your supplier, your teams around the world. So the people will continue to resume business forever, but probably less than before. Because non-essential travel, may be cut. And because some procurement department or some CFOs may use the opportunity of the crisis to cut cost without thinking too much of the top line. So to save $500 or a couple of thousand dollars on one trip, you may expose five or 10% of your top line or a deal, but that’s very often what some companies are doing.
So I think because of that, and because also of probably more time needed in the [inaudible 00:21:01] business to rebound, I think the business travel will suffer a couple of years. And at Qatar Airways to meet that, we’ll offer very good value for money, because we have the best business class, also most private business class in the industry. The Qsuite. That is in fact first in business, with full privacy. So again, it’s about adaptation, reading the market, being there with the trade and giving them the impressions as you are the airline they can rely on. And these guys they know, because during the bad times in 2020, some airlines were not to refunding the tickets fast enough or were not there to fly. So again, we try to put all odds on our side with the product, with the attitude, and we hope the CFO will not win the battle or the procurement department versus the top line and the commercial people who need to travel to make better business. I think the successful company will not reduce their travel expenses. And the losers may reduce their travel expenses. So we welcome everybody on board on Qatar Airways, but especially the winning companies.
Richard Maslen:
Thank you very much. Mr. Al Alawi, do we have you now? Can you hear us?
Waleed Al Alawi:
I can hear you. I hope you can hear me.
Richard Maslen:
I can now. That’s much better. Can you give me a little overview of what you’re seeing in terms of the return of travel and particularly in terms of business travel and what levels you’re seeing and perhaps habits that have changed?
Waleed Al Alawi:
We are actually seeing small improvement through the time, and I think the vaccination have helped a lot. We in Gulf Air value our customers and obviously do follow all the rules and regulations by the health ministries as well as WHO. So we are all reassuring always our passengers. And with the vaccination programs rolling in worldwide, we see a little bit improvement in the number of passengers booking to travel with us. So all for all, the COVID insurance we have just introduced recently, which actually gives the confidence as well to our passengers. The fact that our crew are a hundred percent vaccinated gives more assurance to our passengers. So we see small improvement as time goes on from our passengers returning, we are able to restart some of the destinations we have. Like recently Mykonos, Santorini, and Singapore. We’re going to go to Málaga soon as well. So we see an improvement in the booking as time goes on and passengers gain confidence in the system stem as well as the different airlines, including Gulf Air.
Richard Maslen:
Okay. That’s really positive. One thing that is changing quite considerably, is the need to use technology. Technology was a developing part of the industry. It’s becoming an even more important part of the industry, perhaps as we’ve got a good connection with you here, Mr. Al Alawi, perhaps you can tell us how Gulf Air is beginning to expand its use of technology to meet the needs of its travelers.
