Asian carriers have an opportunity to capture market share permanently, now that the Middle Eastern carriers are struggling when it comes to serving the Europe-Asia Pacific passenger market.
The Middle Eastern airlines are hoping that once the Middle East war is over, they can quickly restore capacity and fully regain their market share.
Industry sources say some Middle Eastern carriers are refusing to allow their cabin crew and pilots to take no pay leave, even though the airline’s flight operations are largely grounded.
Many pilots and cabin crew who had family living with them in the Middle East, quickly made arrangements for their families to leave, but some Middle Eastern airlines refused to allow the pilots and cabin crew to leave, say sources familiar with the situation.
“No pay leave is not an option,” explains one source who is familiar with the cabin crew and pilots’ predicament. “They were told ‘if they leave the country, they will no longer have a job,’” says the source.
While the Middle Eastern carriers are working to maintain headcount, in the hope of restoring full capacity swiftly, Asian carriers are now in a strong position to up capacity on routes between Asia Pacific and Europe to fill the void.
Clearly, the Middle Eastern carriers will heavily discount to try and regain market share. But based on our assessment, it will be a long uphill battle to regain customers’ faith in flying with them.
There will be budget conscious travelers who will return to transiting through the Middle East, lured by cheap airfares.
But there is a large group of travelers who are not so budget conscious, particularly ‘baby boomers’. These cashed up consumers are now more than willing to pay a premium to fly on an Asian full-service carrier.
The war in the Middle East has raised questions in consumers’ minds as to whether it is safe to fly into Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Even if consumers feel the threat of missile and drone attack is minimal, transiting through the Middle East is a hassle many are no longer willing to accept.
In the past, some Asian carriers like Garuda Indonesia, Philippine Airlines and – to a lesser extent – Malaysia Airlines, shied away from serving Europe, thinking it was too hard to compete against the Middle Eastern carriers.
Now things have changed. Opportunities can arise during times of crises and challenges.
Picture, from Tazaatv, show plumes of smoke from a drone attack at Dubai airport.
