DUBAI: The current global financial crisis will certainly have an impact on the airline industry. However there is an air of optimism among industry leaders, Ibrahim Nalkhandey, the newly appointed chief operating officer for travel of Planet Group, UAE, said yesterday.
“Air travel is no more a luxury but a necessity. You might find people are cutting corners, but the show will go on. The exact magnitude of the crisis on the aviation industry is difficult to quantify at this stage. There are certainly difficult days ahead,” Nalkhandey told Arab News in an interview.
Nalkhandey, who has come with a wealth of travel industry experience, spoke on a variety of aspects concerning the aviation sector.
“You need to be optimistic about the future,” he said, adding, “Things will change.” Nalkhandey said: “The rise and fall, the ups and downs are all a natural cycle. Yes, I am confident that things will change, not only for the travel industry but other businesses too.”
He is of the opinion that the Gulf region is also affected by the global financial crisis, but not to the extent the West has been hit.
He said the popularity and importance of budget, low cost airlines was realized in the Gulf at the beginning of the current decade. “There are always options when we consider automobiles, household items, clothes and even food, which have all a range of price tags. But in the aviation sector, there were no such options as budget airlines. “Definitely, low cost careers have not only filled that vacuum but created additional taste and appetite for various segments of the market,” he added.
“Planet Group has given me an ideal platform to position and reposition the company’s travel business, and, yes, there is a risk factor involved in the whole process but things will change and we will be immensely benefited by whatever early initiatives we take,” said Nalkhandey.
“I am very excited with the new role and challenges that lie ahead for me in my new Planet Group assignment. I have been in business and associated with some renowned brands of travel industry for almost two decades. I will use the diversified experience and expertise of the travel industry for the betterment, growth and profitable business development of Planet Group,” said Nalkhandey who shares the vision of Georges Moussa, “the visionary of the Planet Group,” an expanding conglomerate of companies that saw its beginning as Planet Travels, Tours and Cargo in Dubai in 1989.
