TICKETING expert Hahn Air is focusing on agents across the region, AHMED MANSOUR, director global account management, spoke to TTN about what the company offers.
How long has Hahn Air been involved in the Middle East and what are the company’s main areas of business here?
Hahn Air’s mission is to connect 100,000 travel agencies worldwide through GDS or internet. So far we have already made sure that travel agents around the world are able to issue tickets for more than 240 partner airlines on Hahn Air e-documents in any GDS. This means that the Hahn Air ticket enables travel agents to issue airlines which do not participate in their local BSP (billing and settlement plan).
We are a member of all BSPs in the Middle East. We have also opened ticket offices in various countries such as Afghanistan and Syria.
We ensure that travel agents can issue Hahn Air tickets for all our partner airlines in all countries. This, for example, means that a travel agent in Dubai is able to sell FlyBe, Spanair and Alaska Airlines by using Hahn Air ticketing. In addition, Hahn Air multi-airline ticketing allows travel agents to issue an unlimited number of interline combinations of Hahn Air partner airlines on just one HR-169 ticket.
We work with all major airlines in the Middle East including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Gulf Air, providing them with global sales and distribution services in all markets worldwide. Not only legacy carriers work with Hahn Air, but more and more low-cost airlines and hybrid carriers are joining Hahn Air’s global ticketing platform, too.
Are there any plans for expansion in the region and how is this shaping up?
As we are already present in all markets, including non-BSP markets like Afghanistan, we are focusing on promoting our services in the travel trade community. We have noticed that an increasing number of agents make use of the HR-169 e-ticket but there are agencies not yet aware of our services. There is still a lot to do for us!
You have mentioned travelling throughout the region to train distributors and agents, how is this going?
Personal contact with travel agents is very important to us. This is the reason why I am constantly travelling. My main focus is:
• Sales calls with travel agencies
• In-house seminars for the staff of larger travel agency chains for example Kanoo, AL Tayer and Al Shamel
• Briefing helpdesk teams on the different GDS
• Supporting and training our nine service partners and
• Attending the major tourism trade fairs in the region such as Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
Have you noticed any particular travel trends from the region through the ticketing mechanism?
There is a high demand for European destinations like Madrid, Paris and London for holidays and Germany for business, tourist and medical purposes.
Anything else you would like to add?
Travel agents are important to Hahn Air and I wish to thank all agents for their continuous trust in our services shown by issuing so many tickets.
We work hard to make sure that using Hahn Air is the best e-ticketing experience possible in GDS and we are constantly improving our services.
We are focusing particularly on travel agents this year with our service initiative ‘Your ticketing choice – our commitment 2011’.