Interview with Vijay Poonoosamy, Vice President International and Public Affairs Etihad Airways.
Etihad VP International and Public Affairs Vijay Poonoosamy was moderating a session on Destination Planning at the first Global Tourism Economy Forum in Macau. He kindly accepted to answer to questions about Etihad and Asia in exclusivity for TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific.
Why was it important for Etihad Airways to be present at the first GTEF in Macau?
Vijay Poonoosamy: Etihad has a very strong interest for Asia in general and China in particular. This forum with world leaders of the travel and tourism industry gathering together to look at synergies with the world’s economies was already in paper extremely promising. We then suggested to participate and were interested to moderate the session on destination’s planning. And I must now say that I have been comforted by the event. Not only for its excellent preparation and organization but also for the high level of the debates I heard. I am sure it will turn into an essential event in the tourism calendar.
How far is Etihad these days present in Asia?
Vijay Poonoosamy: We currently serve 11 cities in Southeast and Northeast Asia and another seven cities in India where we offer up to eight daily flights out of Abu Dhabi. A city such as Bangkok is even served up to three times daily. But we also offer daily frequencies in cities such as Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai or Nagoya. And we are looking at launching flights to Ho Chi Minh City in the third quarter of next year.
How about your China commitment?
Vijay Poonoosamy: I said earlier that China is of course of utmost important to us. We already serve three cities, Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai which is acting as our main gateway, following the recent signature of a codeshare agreement with China Eastern Airlines. The agreement signed during the summer is very comprehensive at it helps us to combine our global network, put our code share on China Eastern domestic services from Shanghai and link up our frequent flyers programs. We are also looking at new destinations in China and I am sure that we will open new ones over the months to come.
Is Etihad moving into secondary destinations in Asia?
Vijay Poonoosamy: This is of course an important part of our strategy in the future to evaluate the potential of all cities, including ‘secondary’ ones. We already have this policy with India, Japan and China by offering for example services to Cochin, Nagoya or Chengdu. They are certainly other destinations we could serve in Southeast Asia but we probably will have to wait for the arrival of our Boeing 787 which will be the most ideal aircraft to serve those cities.
How do you evaluate the Emirates/Qantas recent commercial agreement?
Vijay Poonoosamy: Well, we in fact showed the way to pave this deal as we entered long before Qantas/Emirates into a comprehensive commercial partnership with Virgin Australia. We even went further by entering up to 10% into the capital of Virgin. Australia is certainly a very interesting market for Gulf carriers as they can offer to Australian passengers an unlimited access to the rest of the world via their respective gateways.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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