The high-flier who loves travel

Asia airline manager wants to land more business from China

Sandeep Bahl, regional general manager for Asia at Air New Zealand, enjoys traveling so it is entirely appropriate he works in the aviation industry.

Travelers use Air New Zealand Ltd self check-in stations in the terminal at Auckland International Airport. Air New Zealand plans to fly six times a week from December and daily by early January next year between Auckland and Shanghai. [Photo/Agencies]

Having been in China for almost nine years, he said: "I have been to all the four central government-managed cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing".

The 48-year-old gets excited talking about traveling.

"I love traveling, so when I go to a place, I just love it. There are so many memorable (experiences) that I can't even count them all," he said.

Not too long ago, Bahl was in Queenstown in New Zealand. He said when he woke up in the morning he thought he might be in heaven.

"I was in this hotel and, when I woke up, in front of me was this beautiful lake and behind me was a big mountain, and I said, 'Wow, where am I?'"

The beautiful scene reminded Bahl of the Heavenly Lake in Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China.

Recalling his amazing experiences, Bahl said he loves them all because they all have something unique. Even the same place is unique and different in different seasons. "I've been to Jiuzhaigou (in Sichuan) five times and four of those were in different seasons. Jiuzhaigou is totally different (in each season). You think you are in a totally new place," said Bahl.

He even described the experience of lining up for 20 minutes in Shanghai to get some xiaolongbao, small steamed buns filled with meat, as thoroughly delightful.

Bahl considers travel to be not only a hobby but also a habit.

"Once a month, I travel somewhere for pleasure. It could be a weekend trip. I always make sure I go to different places, by air or train. And in Beijing you can drive to many places," said Bahl.

A couple of months ago Bahl moved to Shanghai when he took up his new position. "I am going to start exploring Shanghai," he said.

The rapidly growing market in China attracted Air New Zealand to set up a regional office in the city. "We took this as a great opportunity to grow our business," said Bahl.

Bahl first entered the travel industry when he joined Hyatt Hotels Corp after graduating from a hotel school in New Delhi in 1985. A year later he moved over to the airline industry, working for several airlines in India, including Qantas Airways Ltd and Japan Airlines Co.

"Airlines are not only about transporting people from A to B. Like the service industry, airlines provide comfort for people when they're traveling. It's part of the hospitality industry and, therefore, it was a natural continuation for me to move from the hotel industry to running an airline. After all, airlines provide customer services when the customers are flying to where they want to be," said Bahl.

Air New Zealand is not as big as the airlines Bahl used to work for. "It's nimble. It's a boutique kind of airline that is very much focused on serving New Zealand as the destination. The best thing about Air New Zealand is it is an airline with a huge potential to grow and I can add my knowledge and experience of working in Asia for so long to grow the business," said Bahl.

Bahl also added that his experience shows that people can grow tourism at the same time as growing a business.

New Zealand, close to the very southern end of the world, boasts rich tourism appeal that contributes 10 percent of the nation's GDP. Being one of the countries closest to the Antarctic, New Zealand has opposite seasons to China: Its winter is China's summer.

The country also has a varied climate. People can go skiing in the southern part and play golf in the northern part in the same month. The beautiful scenery and fresh air attract tourists from all over the world.

Taking advantage of Chinese people's enthusiasm for overseas travel and the trend for more Chinese tourists to take holidays, Air New Zealand added one more flight from Shanghai to Auckland in July, making it five direct services a week between the two cities. The carrier plans to fly six times a week from December and daily by early January next year between the two cities.

"From Auckland we connect to more than 25 domestic destinations within New Zealand. We are also the best way to fly to the Pacific islands, including Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa and the Cook Islands," Bahl said.

New Zealand considers China to be a highly valuable and important market.

There were only 20,000 overseas tourists visiting New Zealand in 1999. The amount exceeded 180,000 in 2012, with 30 percent of the growth coming from China, Xinhuanet reported.

Chinese tourists to New Zealand surged 33 percent year-on-year in 2011. The country is looking for a 60 percent increase in tourism from China by 2015, John Key, New Zealand's prime minister, was quoted as saying by Xinmin Evening News.

Along with the rapidly growing number of Chinese visitors to New Zealand, more and more New Zealanders are visiting China. About 62,500 of them visited China from January to June this year, a growth of 9.38 percent year-on-year.

A total of 13.46 million foreigners visited China in the first six months of 2012, up 4.53 percent year-on-year, according to data from the National Tourism Administration.

Beijing and Shanghai are the most favored destinations by foreigners. Some 5.2 million visited Beijing in 2011 and spent a total of $5.42 billion in the capital city. The figures were 4.36 million and $4.58 billion in 2007 respectively, Beijing Daily newspaper reported.

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce said more than 7 million overseas visitors went to Shanghai last year and spent more than 700 billion yuan ($111.6 billion) in the city.

Air New Zealand was the first airline to provide direct flights between China and New Zealand in 2006.

Bahl said his short-term goal is to grow the business in China. His long-term goal is to achieve intra-Asia regional growth that Air New Zealand can exploit through attracting more people to travel to New Zealand.

Chinese airlines have suffered falling earnings because of higher fuel costs and weakened demand caused by the economic slowdown.

Although Air New Zealand reported a 12 percent dip in its net profit to 71 million New Zealand dollars ($58.5 million), John Palmer, chairman of the carrier, said the company is poised to double its before-tax earnings in the coming financial year, the Associated Press reported in late August.

The global aviation market may be suffering but flights connecting to China guarantee foreign airlines a profit because of the high occupancy rate, said Li Lei, an analyst with China Minzu Securities.

Air New Zealand is looking to Asia as a key growth area. "We are adding almost 46 percent more seats to the Shanghai market and we are adding almost 21 percent more seats to our Japan market," said Bahl.

In order to give Chinese travelers a special experience in flying with Air New Zealand, the carrier has 120 Chinese flight attendants.

Contact the reporters at wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn and mazhenhuan@chinadaily.com.cn

Chen Jing and Zhao Rulai in Shanghai contributed to this story.