TTO_January_2018_web
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APG:<br />
Goran Hansson and Erik Lindholm together with Mette Sikla Nielsen,<br />
Nyhavn Rejser during a promotion for Vietnam Airlines.<br />
Important to be international<br />
“It is, and will always be, important<br />
to be present on local markets in spite<br />
of today’s automatization. One of the<br />
most common replies from the travel<br />
industry is their appreciation of having<br />
a local name and number to contact.”<br />
Goran Hanson director of the Nordic<br />
APG says.<br />
“APG moves in that direction. We<br />
emphasize local telephone numbers on<br />
all markets having a reasonable volume<br />
in sales and clear and easy-to-find email<br />
addresses.”<br />
“It is our competitive advantage to be<br />
easily found and reached whenever<br />
needed for assistance and service. Just<br />
like it is important for APG Nordic also<br />
to cater for the smaller markets, like<br />
Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania,<br />
through our nearest physical offices.”<br />
“Our plan is to open a small office in Oslo<br />
within the near future in addition to our<br />
offices in Copenhagen, Stockholm and<br />
Tallinn.”<br />
APG Network today has over 100 offices<br />
worldwide to cover and service over 170<br />
countries and as such being the largest<br />
GSA. As APG also have airline products<br />
as ABCS and IET this is another reason<br />
to be closer to the customers.<br />
APG has various number of customers<br />
depending on which country and we<br />
focus primarily on airline representation<br />
(GSA) but also to provide airlines with<br />
technical solutions to handle interline<br />
relations and ticketing platforms<br />
through our own airline, APG Airline<br />
(GP 275) to ease the burden of high<br />
fixed costs for new entrants or for larger<br />
airlines on small or secondary markets.<br />
For APG Scandinavia & Baltics the<br />
newest partner is Cobalt Air from<br />
Cyprus commencing regular flights<br />
between Copenhagen and Larnaca at<br />
end of March.<br />
Goran Hansson: “Sweden is by natural<br />
reasons the largest individual market<br />
in volume but Denmark continues to<br />
record a very positive trend. In <strong>2018</strong><br />
we expect Norway to pick up again<br />
with an improved economy and return<br />
to situation a couple of years ago. The<br />
New Year promise for us is to work even<br />
closer with our friends in APG Finland<br />
and together offer customers an area<br />
of 8 countries with around 32 million<br />
inhabitants.“<br />
“Of course there is a difference between<br />
the markets in the various countries<br />
where we are present. All markets<br />
are different, and must be treated<br />
differently, but also have probably more<br />
in common. Sometimes it is challenges<br />
to convince airlines with head offices<br />
on the other side of the Globe how it<br />
works in this part of the World and<br />
the borderless areas we enjoy having.<br />
Compared to the more high populated<br />
countries in Europe it is also more<br />
difficult to get understanding for the<br />
needs of our markets and that (online)<br />
flights to one destination cannot satisfy<br />
the whole region and that there is a need<br />
for good relations also with the local<br />
carriers to secure connecting flights for<br />
offline airlines.<br />
4<br />
>> Travel Trade OUTBOUND - Scandinavia
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