TTN talks to BRAD WEST, country manager Middle East Virgin Atlantic Airways about the company’s latest offerings and coming promotions.
How did Virgin perform in the region this fiscal year?
We have had a good year following 2009 which was a very challenging year. We saw a good rebound last year. Load factors were more than 70 per cent across the year and there was definitely an increase in demand for premium traffic in the front end of the aircraft. We have seen that high-end premium leisure travel has returned and we are expecting a very good peak season for June, July and August with some very busy flights.
Our fiscal year begins in March and we had a good first month. We also saw strong demand in April with the long Easter break and the benefits of the royal wedding in the UK. British holiday makers certainly took advantage of the time off and Dubai was a popular choice and we’re expecting to see an increase in interest in London and the UK after the wedding was such a success.
Will you increase flights from here or look at expanding with an Abu Dhabi flight?
We are growing this year and will continue that next year with more aircraft arriving. We will take delivery of more new Airbus A330s in 2012 which will allow us to grow and after that we have the Boeing 787s on order, although that aircraft has been delayed as everyone knows. We added Manchester to Las Vegas in April and we’re increasing our services to parts of the Caribbean as well so we are increasing our overall capacity this year, but there’s no firm news on growth to the Middle East yet.
Any upgrades or changes to the Dubai route/aircraft?
We have the A340-600 on this route already which is one of our newest aircraft. We have our latest on-demand entertainment system, the upper-class suite and our premium economy cabin with leather seats so it is a great all round product. There will be some product enhancements to the fleet next year, I can’t say what they are but we have some really exciting plans.
You mentioned that 70 per cent of your business still comes from travel agents, anything planned to encourage more or to ensure this share is maintained?
Looking back at my career, I have always worked closely with the trade in all the markets I’ve worked in and you have to recognised the shear volume of revenue and the support that they give us. We ran a competition in April around our fifth birthday in Dubai where we gave away five tickets to London over five weeks and lots of other prizes as well. It went down really well and we’re working on similar incentives for the next couple of months.
How do you communicate to the trade?
We use a lot of electronic mail. It is all about reward and recognition, encouraging sales and giving the support and training behind the scenes. Supporting travel agents, who put in all the effort when selling our product, is really important to us.
How do you fare with your competitors?
We try to punch above our weight on all our routes. Our market share is normally above our capacity on the route. We are trade-friendly and we support that by advertising to the consumers, which drives business to the travel agents.
I would like to end with a big thank you to everyone that has supported the airline over the last five years here in Dubai. It is a really successful route for Virgin.