CASE STUDY
Dana Gas drills down on travel booking behaviour
About Dana Gas
Dana Gas is a key player in the Middle East’s fast-moving natural gas sector. Listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the company was the Middle East’s first and largest private natural gas company. Dana Gas specialises in natural gas exploration and production. It also operates processing and transportation assets in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and Egypt.
Dana Gas employs almost 1100 people globally, with most staff based in the UAE, Egypt, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. On average 30+ people are travelling for the company each month. The bulk of the company’s travel is to Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as into the key markets of Iraq and Egypt.
Challenges
As a client of FCM for over 10 years, our team has developed a thorough understanding of where and how this client can drive efficiencies and savings. For the past year or so, Dana Gas has been focused on reducing costs and has been working with FCM to improve booking behaviours, supplier deals, and access to negotiated hotel rates. Dana Gas’ air travel, hotel accommodation, and car hire have all been put under the microscope.
Because the company’s air travel schedule includes rotating staff and fly-in-fly-out employees, Dana Gas wanted to maximise savings from advance purchase as travel dates are known well before the staff are due to fly.
“On behalf of our organisation, I would like to thank FCM for their excellent support, during normal times as well as during a crisis period. We sincerely appreciate their efficiency in providing travel support, especially the operations team and the after-hours service even during the pandemic. We look forward to this continued support in the future.”
Fatima Al Obaidly - External Affairs Manager & Investor Relations Officer
Our solutions
Air travel
FCM’s team in the UAE has worked closely with Dana Gas to reduce average air tickets costs by:
- Monitoring advance purchase via regular management information reporting
- Maximising key airline negotiations
- Route deals
- Airline loyalty programmes
Negotiations with the client’s key airline suppliers have driven more value from their air travel. A new corporate rewards programme has been introduced for travellers, reducing ticket costs from miles earned on every trip. FCM conducts quarterly reviews with Dana Gas to highlight how their booking behaviour impacts ticket prices and where the opportunities are to save through advance purchases.
Hotels
Additionally, FCM has helped Dana Gas to develop a hotel programme that consolidates volume with its key suppliers. Negotiated hotel rates have been loaded into FCM’s online booking tool system to ensure easy access to their preferred rates.
The results
Air travel success:
- 4% - 5% savings achieved through lower average ticket costs
- 5% annual savings have been delivered from Dana Gas’ corporate loyalty membership programme with one of their preferred airlines.
Harnessing hotel savings:
- Preferred hotel rates are negotiated and loaded into FCM’s online booking system for easy access to discounted rates.
Impeccable partnership:
A key feature of this relationship is the 24/7 support FCM’s UAE team provides Dana Gas. A combination of specialised knowledge of the remote destinations the client is travelling to, particularly in Kurdistan, around-the-clock travel service and the support available through COVID-19 has seen the long-term partnership go from strength to strength.