Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) always welcomes collaboration with new airlines from other parts of the world to further increase its connectivity, however, the collaboration should be based on the best interest of the nation and RB as well as the partnering airline.

The important basis of welcoming collaboration with new airlines was highlighted by RB Chief Executive Officer Karam Chand on the sidelines of yesterday's codeshare agreement signing between RB and Hong Kong Airlines.

On collaborating with other carriers, he explained, "It does provide an opportunity for us, with some of the markets that we can't serve made available. However, it could also be a threat to our market.

"Brunei's market is small and limited by the population, therefore the outbound market is quite small, while the inbound market is around 225,000 visitors arrival per year on average, relative to other market.

"Our view is that we should develop the market and allow new carriers to come in, but in a manner that is beneficial to the nation, RB and the other collaborative carriers.

"If we are serving daily Hong Kong flights and some other airline comes in and serves daily and double daily flights to Hong Kong, it doesn't add any values to us.

"We know from history that the visitors' arrival market grows very slowly, so we must take into account the supply and demand. Unless the demand side or visitors arrival changes dramatically, it will have consequences for RB. If an airline comes from a totally new city that we don't serve, we won't have any concern," he cited.

Therefore, "we have an open mind and look at collaboration pragmatically - for the best interest of the nation, like on how to get more tourists here and to serve new markets," he explained.

With regards to RB's current strategies, he explained "We are providing most capacity in access of 65 per cent from Brunei Darussalam and we are the largest carriers in Brunei Darussalam. We have added destinations like Denpasar, Ho Chi Minh City, Zhengzhou in China and Nanning. We are consistently growing in a measured approach and not in a significant capacity that the market cannot absorb."

He also noted that RB will be getting seven new aircrafts next year and in 2018 to allow for new market penetration.

Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM

by BruDirect.com

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