CVFR Travel Group, Group CEO, Ram Chhabra at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Asia 2026

Transcript

Ram Chhabra:The trends we sort of see from the airline side is more almost short-term planning rather than long-term planning. I think that's purely because of the constant change we have in the market, be it the wars in the Middle East, which has spiralled the market into a bit of chaos, but also which has resulted in the ongoing fuel crisis as well. So airlines are, as many others have commented, it's not the high fuel prices which are causing chaos for them, but it's the sort of the up and downs of inconsistent fuel prices which doesn't allow them to plan long term. An airline commented yesterday to me that they'd rather see the fuel price high but consistent rather than seeing jumps up and down because it just doesn't allow them to plan. So airlines are in a position where you We're used to hearing airlines talk about planning 3 or 4 or 5 years ahead, but they're currently looking at plans 3 or 4 or 5 months ahead. Well, as a GSA in the Australasian market, well, the Australian region of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, we're the market specialists. So when we talk about airlines have a challenge about planning ahead, local know-how becomes integral in their planning and thinking. And having a GSA partner which is so heavily entrenched in the local market, gives the airlines that knowledge and local sort of expertise and advice, which helps them plan. Our region is still very heavily trade-focused, so if we look at Australia and New Zealand, over 50%, close to 60% of the airlines' revenue still comes from trade, from travel agents, from online travel agents, and so, and not from their direct booking channels. So therefore, local trade relationships become critical for the airline. Engaging with the local trade becomes very important for them to drive their revenue, and those relationships aren't built overnight. They take time, and our business is now 40 years and ticking along. The GSA business has been around for almost 15 years, so those local relationships with leading trade partners has developed over time and very strong, and airline gets the benefit of that when they work with us. They get that 15, 20 years of relationship building in an instant. Our goal has been to win both offline and online airlines in the coming years. Offline because, as we discussed earlier, the market's getting more challenging, and as a result, those offline airlines which are flying to Australia, but for every— for them, every dollar revenue, no matter where it comes from, even from their offline ports, becomes very important. And so A lot of these airlines don't know how to focus or how to tap that offline market, and we can help them with that. So again, incremental revenue, which they weren't expecting, helps their bottom line. For online airlines, again, the local expertise. So we are even approaching airlines which, you know, have been playing or been flying to Australia for many years, but the cost of doing business in Australia is getting harder and harder, and in New Zealand it's getting harder and harder. So we can provide a more cost-effective solution And if you can keep costs in tight, tight, the margin goes up straight away.

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