After enduring a slow first-quarter travel season, airlines hope the summer will bring a fresh tide of ticket bookings as Gulf families take holidays in Asia and Europe. But with the industry in the grips of the global slowdown, airlines may not be able to begin raising ticket prices after months of offering bargain deals. The summer season begins in mid-June and the first advance bookings are beginning to trickle in. The preliminary data was hopeful, said Karim el Sanadily, the regional manager for Austrian Airlines. "It looks promising," he said. By contrast, the first months of the year saw Austrian and other airlines book an average of 20 per cent fewer tickets, with fares dropping by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent. The financial crisis has caused air travel in the Middle East to grow by just 0.4 per cent in February, well down from the double-digit growth from 2005 to 2008, according to the International Air Transport Association. Airlines responded by cutting ticket prices and offering a variety of promotions, ranging from ticket discounts to lowering requirements to use loyalty points for travel and offering companions of business-class travellers a 50 per cent discount. The impact of the downturn in the region's construction industry was felt in varying ways by airlines in the first quarter. China Southern, which flies into Dubai from its hubs in Beijing and the industrial capital of Guangzhou, said flights from Beijing have been hurt by the downturn in traffic of Chinese labourers. "Normally Beijing is popular with labour traffic - Chinese labourers involved in the [UAE] construction industry - but this is suffering at the moment," said Najeeb Akthar, the assistant manager of sales and marketing at China Southern. Meanwhile, labourers returning home to the Indian subcontinent made up a large portion of passengers for SriLankan Airlines. "From January through March, much of our passengers were workers made redundant," said Shiran Perrera, the UAE manager for the airline. "That is what we've been surviving on. Hopefully, in July, August or September we will bring them back. Construction has to start up again, and we see opportunity there again." For the summer season, SriLankan has begun to focus more on promoting holiday travel within Sri Lanka and surrounding locales such as the Maldives. Previously, it marketed longer-haul travel from the UAE, using its hub in Colombo to ferry travellers to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, but this market is down. Austrian Airlines has joined Austrian hotels in a campaign to stimulate travel to the European nation. "Austria is still one of the good markets [for UAE holidays]," Mr el Sanadily said. The company is also targeting more corporate accounts with small to medium-sized businesses, "not just the big shots", he said.In a positive sign at China Southern, UAE residents were beginning to take holidays in China, Mr Akthar said. "For the first time, we're receiving leisure bookings for this summer." Even with the expected rise in summer demand, there still could be plenty of low fares on offer, industry officials said. "I don't think prices will rise," Mr Perrera said. "From what I gather from the trade, some airlines already have reduced prices for the summer." igale@thenational.ae