Dnata Travel, one of the world’s largest air services providers is exiting the corporate travel portfolio in India as it inks an agreement with Thomas Cook (India) to take over its existing client base.
The transition is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. The agreement was concluded after an extensive process of evaluation by dnata, which expects Thomas Cook India to offer its corporate clients the same high-quality service levels.
Mahesh Iyer, CEO & Executive Director, Thomas Cook India said “We are delighted to announce today, that after an extensive evaluation exercise, dnata Travel India picked Thomas Cook India as their choice of partner to take over their Corporate Travel portfolio in India. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve dnata corporate client portfolio and meet their evolving expectations with regard to business travel. Our first focus will be ensuring continuity of service needs and building on these strong client partnerships. This agreement helps reinforce the TCIL Group’s continued leadership in the Corporate Travel space, adding both scale and value to our portfolio. We remain bullish on the business travel opportunity and remain focused on sustainable growth enabled by cutting edge service-leadership.”
Rashid Al Awadhi, Regional VP at dnata Travel quoted: “Whilst we are disappointed to be exiting the corporate market in India, it has always been our intention to provide our valued customers with an alternative option. We are delighted that we can now offer customers the option of a seamless transition to Thomas Cook.”
In the current global pandemic challenge when the tourism industry has come to a standstill, as per credit rating agency, ICRA, in India business travel is likely to recover first, with mid-scale and economy before luxury. Group business cancellations will continue well into the end of 2020, if not longer. The start of the recovery is about three to four quarters away and contingent on a cure or a vaccine. Normalcy could be much further away, over to two to three years.
(Story Updated at 11:30 am, 17-07-2020)