ITB Asia News 2022 - Day 1 Edition

I SPECIAL FEATURE I

I SPECIAL FEATURE I TRANSPORT I Javier Roig Director France and Southern Europe, Finnair Finnair tweaks strategy while keeping Asia in picture Finnair has reviewed its strategy and reorientated itself towards markets in South and Southeast Asia while increasing frequencies to the United States. This was a strategic move by the carrier following the closure of the Russian airspace for EU airlines, explains Javier Roig, Director France and Southern Europe of Finnair to ITB Asia News. "We have to open another chapter." After establishing its reputation as a 'niche company‘ with the shortest flights between Europe and Asia, the challenging geopolitical situation has forced Finnair to completely rethink its model. "We had to work on a new strategy that takes into account the flight ban in Russian airspace," explains Javier Roig. Finnair has therefore revised its network and suspended the service on secondary routes, in particular to Japan and China. This includes non-stop flights from Helsinki to Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka-Kansai. In China, Finnair used to serve seven destinations, including Daxing, Beijing new airport. With longer flying times, Finnair decided to concentrate on trunk routes. “We are not giving up on Asia. We are still flying to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo Haneda- which replaces our flight to Narita. We are also focusing more on South and Southeast Asia, where we remain competitive compared to other companies in terms of frequencies and product. We serve Delhi and Mumbai in India as well as Bangkok, Phuket and Singapore in the ASEAN. We have put our Airbus A350-900 with the new business class and the brand new Economy Premium on Singapore. It will also arrive for Bangkok in November ", says Javier Roig. The new business class and premium economy were launched earlier in 2022. According to Roig, the whole fleet of long-haul aircrafts will be equiped with the new cabins by early 2024. "The new product helped us get voted the Best Airline in Northern Europe by air travellers at the World Airline Awards by Skytrax in 2022," highlights Roig. Another new area of ​development is the launch of routes to Doha in partnership with Qatar Airways. “Here too, it is a question of maximizing the use of our fleet. We will thus be offering three daily flights in the A330 from Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm”, the Director of Southern Europe adds. In Doha, Asian travellers can connect in Doha on Finnair flights from all Asian destinations served by the Qatari carrier. With an expanding network in the United States - in particular the opening of Dallas, and aircraft rentals to other airlines, Finnair hopes to return to profit in 2023. "It would be a good sign because the company will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year," tells Javier Roig STAND M13 ROBUST RECOVERY FOR ASIAN AIRLINES Preliminary traffic figures for August released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) points to a robust recovery in international air passenger markets as travel demand has grown. In August, Asian airlines carried a combined 13.1 million international passengers, representing 39% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Demand (in revenue passenger kilometres*) grew by 501.3%, while available seat capacity was up by 174.5% compared to August 2021. As a result, the international passenger load factor jumped by 42.3 points to 77.9%. For Subhas Menon, AAPA Director General, "the lifting of travel restrictions in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan will hasten the pace of the industry’s return to health, while full recovery is not expected until China is also open." * revenue passenger kilometres or RPK is the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers. Singapore Changi Terminal 3 14 ITB ASIA NEWS • WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2022 www.itb-asia-news.com

I SPECIAL FEATURE I TRANSPORT I An Ngo Regional Vice President Eastern & Southeastern Asia - Agency Distribution, Hahn Air MORE THAN 100,000 TRAVEL AGENCIES IN 190 MARKETS AROUND THE WORLD HAVE ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES Hahn Air highlights additional ticketing opportunities with more than 350 partner airlines at ITB Asia 2022 An Ngo, Regional Vice President Eastern & Southeastern Asia - Agency Distribution at Hahn Air explains the valueadd its comprehensive ticketing services offer for travel agents. What are the ticketing services Hahn Air is offering for travel agencies? Hahn Air has been offering ticketing services to travel agencies since 1999. By choosing Hahn Air as the validating carrier, they have access to airlines that would normally not be available for ticketing in their GDS (Global Distribution System). Hahn Air partners with over 350 airlines that seek to expand their distribution reach. If an airline is not in the local BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan) or does not grant ticketing authority in a certain market, travel agents can still issue the flights through our services, which are strictly B2B. Travel agents have access to more routes, more destinations, more airlines and more combinations of airlines on one single HR-169 ticket. They can use the standard processes of their GDS and, and best of all, the service is absolutely free. How exactly does it work? To issue a Hahn Air ticket, travel agents do not need to leave their GDS. All they need to do is go through the standard ticketing and payment processes and simply choose Hahn Air (HR) as the validating carrier. They will then be able to use the familiar GDS processes to issue a Hahn Air HR-169 ticket. On the Hahn Air website, we provide easy stepby-step guides. For airlines that are not in a GDS under their own two-letter code, we make them available in all major GDS. If they are a partner airline of Hahn Air Systems, they are available under the code H1. If they are a partner airline of Hahn Air Technologies, they are available under the code X1. Travel agents can simply then select Hahn Air as the validating carrier and issue a ticket. How are Hahn Air's distribution services enhancing the travel agents’ business? Hahn Air’s services create additional ticketing opportunities with more than 350 partner airlines. More than 100,000 travel agencies in 190 markets around the world have access to our services. Travel agencies can trust in the quality of our partners and can count on receiving support with ticketing questions 24/7 via our Service Desk. In addition, we offer the free and automatic insolvency protection Securtix. Should any partner have to cancel flights due to becoming insolvent, we grant a ticket refund for the passengers. This is adding an extra layer of security and reassurance for our travel agents who can always book our partners with confidence STAND L21 HAHN AIR PLANTS 150,000 MANGROVE TREES WITH VERITREE "We believe that it is our duty to invest in a sustainable future and support social projects benefitting people in need around the world", explains An Ngo. To mitigate climate change, Hahn Air has partnered with veritree, a technology platform enabling and tracking global restoration projects. Hahn Air committed to restoring coastal mangrove forests in Kenya and Madagascar by planting 150,000 trees which equals an area of 15 hectares. Once matured, the Hahn Air trees will sequester an average of 32,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. "This is also our declared goal to offer carbon compensation options for flights distributed through Hahn Air in the future. While we support also social projects via the Hahn Air Foundation", adds Ngo.sites such as DMZ, Suwon Hwaseong Fortress and Namhansanseong Fortress. ITB ASIA NEWS • WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2022 15