Airline chiefs at the ongoing 12th World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in Tokyo, which Business Traveller attended as a guest of the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau, urged governments to act more quickly on the issue of “Open Skies” or risk losing out on future growth.
At a special panel tackling the “ever-changing role of airlines”, Willie Walsh, chief executive officer, International Airlines Group, and former head of British Airways, said: “There is massive potential for global economies to expand when governments step back and implement deregulation. Telling airlines where they can fly to, how many times they can fly and how much they can charge is outdated. It’s what consumers want that now determines those factors."
Shinichiro Ito, president and chief executive officer, All Nippon Airways, agreed, saying: “People want choices these days, and if it has value and they can pay for it, they will buy it. It‘s all about us offering our customers options.”
He ZongKai, executive vice-president, China Southern Airlines, added that “unless governments ease restrictions, we cannot plan increases in our flight frequencies”.
From Etihad’s experience, its president and chief executive officer James Hogan observed that bilateral agreements between countries had “blocked Middle Eastern carriers from entering certain markets”. He said: “This industry practice has to change.”
Walsh said hotels might suffer, too, if airlines were unable to grow their business. He highlighted hospitality groups such as Marriott and InterContinental, which have been increasing inventory at a pace and scale unheard of before in places like China, as examples. “Their rooms have to be filled, and that will not happen with the current state of bilaterals.”
John Slosar, chief executive, Cathay Pacific, said airline ownership should also be reviewed. Walsh of IAG backed up his observation, citing former Hungarian state-owned Malev Airlines, which recently folded, as an example of a wise decision to halt a non-profitable operation. He said: "It should never be that weak airlines be subsidised for nationalistic purposes.”
Margie T Logarta
