TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Hahn Air is focusing on the Middle East region in 2017 in order to attract more partners and enable them to maximise their revenues, says its VP Sales and Agency Distribution, Kimberley Long.
SHEHARA RIZLY
Q How does Hahn Air connect with travel trade?
Hahn Air facilitates global business between travel agencies and airlines to do business with each other, the airline’s flights have to be available in a Global Distribution System (GDS). In addition, both the travel agent and the airline need to be a member of the local Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP). As it is generally not financially sustainable for an airline to be a member of all BSPs and GDSs in the world, not all travel agents are able to sell tickets of all airlines. For example, a travel agent in Dubai may not be able to issue a ticket of an African carrier in the GDS. For both parties this means a missed business opportunity. We provide the missing link as we are connected to all major GDSs and are members of almost every BSP. Moreover, as we are an IATA airline, we can form interline agreements with other airlines and can sell their flights on the HR-169 ticket stock.
Our large network of partners and travel agents can sell countless combinations of carriers on the HR-169 ticket. For groups of 10 travellers or more, the HR-Groups team will help travel agents to save time and effort. We are also the only ticketing provider to offer the complimentary insolvency insurance Securtix®, with each ticket. Our complimentary ticket insurance guarantees passengers a refund in the event that a service issued on an HR-169 document with any of Hahn Air’s partners is cancelled due to insolvency. We are proud that Securtix® has proven to be such a valuable service to our travel agency partners. Since 2010, travel agencies have issued over 27 million insolvency safe HR-169 tickets with Hahn Air.
Our team of 22 dedicated Global Account Directors regularly contact and visit travel agents in their respective markets. Each director actively creates awareness of Hahn Air and our ticketing services through presentations, trainings and networking events across the countries in their portfolio. Our global and multilingual team provides daily support round the clock at the service desk. Agents can contact the Global Service Desk at service@hahnair.com. Our website www.hahnair.com also provides lots of useful tools and information including Quick Check, the GDS Ticketing Assistant and an entertaining series of informational videos.
Q What benefits do you offer the agents in the ME region?
For the Middle East region we will continue to support the markets with regular newsletters on recent Hahn Air developments as well as targeted newsletters on the latest routes and promotions from our growing partner network. We will remain committed to providing inhouse agency trainings, webinars and sales visits and not to forget our 24/7 service desk support system.
Q What have you planned for 2017 for the ME region?
We will support our agents to see strong revenue developments in 2017. We are planning to add more airline partners and work closely with Middle Eastern travel agencies to maximise their potential. The Middle Eastern market holds great potential and Middle Eastern travel agencies have increased their business with Hahn Air to date by over 8 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015.
