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Gulf Times
Thursday, August 27, 2015

COMMENT
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GULF TIMES
Positive dope
tests a blow
for athletics
Barely four days after Usian Bolt produced a stunning
performance to win the 100 metres and reinforce his
status as the best-ever sprinter in history, the IAAF
World Championships in Beijing have been hit by a major
doping scandal with two Kenyans failing dope tests.
The revelation yesterday that Koki Manunga and
Joyce Zakarys samples returned positive after they
had undergone targeted tests at their hotel before the
championships began came as a blow to track and elds
world governing body which had gone to great lengths
to assert that athletics remained a clean sport despite
reports in the media that it had failed to stem the menace
of performance-enhancing drugs.
Zakary clocked a national record of 50.71 seconds in
Mondays rst round of the womens 400m, but did
not start the semi-nal on Tuesday for which she had
qualied. African silver medallist Manunga failed to
make it out of her rst round of the 400m hurdles on
Sunday.
The storm over rampant doping by athletes had cast
a shadow over the World Championships, with new
IAAF President Sebastian Coe vowing to focus most of
his efforts on eradicating the scourge immediately after
being elected to the post following a erce battle with
fellow athletics legend Sergey Bubka.
In fact, the build-up to the Beijing event was
dominated, not by talk
of the possibility of
world records being
broken, but by concerns
over doping in which
Kenyans and Russians
were the prime suspects.
It certainly caused panic
within the IAAF, with
outgoing President
Lamine Diack lashing
out at the media saying, We are not cycling.
Cycling, of course, is a sport where doping had been
rife with some of the best-known riders, including
American Lance Armstrong, going from hero to pariah
after being outed as drug cheats.
Yesterdays announcement tempered the joy of the
Kenyan squad who won two gold medals at the iconic
Birds Nest Stadium where Julius Yego produced the
longest throw in 14 years to win the mens javelin, while
Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi pipped hot Tunisian favourite
Habiba Ghribi for the womens 3000m steeplechase title.
Its a shame for them, said Kenyan teammate Yego,
whose monster third-round effort of 92.72 metres was
the longest since Czech world record holder Jan Zelezny
threw 92.80 in 2001.
In sport you win clean so its a shame for them. I cant
make any more comment on that.
Athletics Kenya, the nations governing body, later
said it had already met with the IAAF and the athletes
involved, and has begun investigating the situation
which led to these results and appropriate follow-up
action will be taken in Kenya.
Kenya was rocked this year when marathon star Rita
Jeptoo was banned for two years after being caught
doping with the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO.
The IAAF, under Coe, would do well to come up with an
honest probe of its own rather than dismiss investigative
reports as mere sensationalism. It shouldnt forget that
had it not been for the media, cheats like Armstrong
probably would have gotten away with their legacy and
riches secure.

The IAAF, under

new President
Coe, would do
well to come up
with an honest
probe of its own

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Overbooked ights: its a

nightmare for passengers
Overbooking is a common
practice in the airline
industry worldwide where
carriers will accept a few
additional reservations
beyond the aircrafts seating
capacity
By Updesh Kapur
Doha

ts that time
of the year.
The summer
holiday season
is coming to an end.
Planes full of passengers are arriving
into Hamad International Airport
from far-ung places across the world.
Most passengers on inbound ights
with national carrier Qatar Airways
typically transit through Doha.
But at this time of the year, more
than the norm arrive back in their
homeland and adopted home of Qatar.
Other carriers are too ying full with
returning passengers to Qatar.
For Qataris and expats alike, its a
return to routine back home, back to
work and back to school.
Roads are beginning to get busy
once again. Shops are lling up with
regular customers.
Retailers have beaming smiles as
trade picks up.
For airlines in the Gulf, its one of
the busiest seasons, ying passengers
back to the Middle East and primarily
to Europe where the summer break for
most is also coming to an end.
But peak seasons are not always a happy
time for travellers. In fact, the busier the
season, the more stressful it becomes for
passengers and airlines alike.
Despite holding conrmed
bookings, passengers may end up
being left behind at the check-in
counter because ights have been
overbooked.
Overbooking is a common practice
in the airline industry worldwide
where carriers will accept a few
additional reservations beyond the
aircrafts seating capacity.
All airlines overbook to ensure they
have a full ight. They want to ll seats
that could be left empty by passengers
who dont show up for their ight or
fail to cancel their reservations prior to
departure.
We all know the outcome of missing
a ight having been held up in snarling
traffic or left our home or hotel
without essential travel documents.
Yours truly has been in this situation a
couple of times!
Its for these reasons that
overbooking is a common practice.
But it is also aimed at earning airlines
more revenue.
Anyone trying to book a seat on an
already full ight will still be able to
secure a reservation but at a price.

Internet booking engines will

inevitably show there are limited
seats available on a busy ight, but
at a fare much higher and at times
extortionately high than what you
think you should be paying.
Airlines make good money in such a
scenario.
Before leaving India earlier this
week for my return ight to Doha,
which incidentally was conrmed and
priced heavily being peak season, I
went on a stroll around check-in desks
of various airlines at Delhis Indira
Gandhi International Airport.
Indias international airports are at
their busiest at this time of the year.
Queues were jam-packed for the
early morning departures of European
and Gulf airlines to their respective
home countries.
The stressful faces of passengers
were clear to see.
On one hand there were airline staff
desperately trying to get onto ights with
their children, all travelling on heavily
subsidised 10% tickets, otherwise known
in the industry as ID90s.
There were some I knew who
returned to the airport on two
consecutive early mornings for
departures back to Qatar, only to be
told the ights were full. They are of
course given less priority than fullfare paying passengers.
But for them, its not a pleasant
experience, giving up sleep for two
nights on the trot with kids in tow to
get to the airport early and be sent
back home packing.
On the other hand, there were bona
de passengers having paid, perhaps
well in advance, for seats to their nal
destination. At a couple of counters of
different airlines, I could see and hear their
arguments with check-in staff after being
bumped off overbooked ights.
A free nights accommodation
courtesy of airlines is no consolation,
nor would compensation for denied
boarding. However, an overbooked
plane can be seen as a mixed blessing
for those with time on their hands
who can afford the inconvenience of
staying on an extra night or two at
someone elses expense and rack up
free meal coupons and complimentary
ight vouchers.
Check-in staff avoid passenger
commotion by trying to convince a
select-few passengers to forfeit their

Peak season travel can be a nightmare for passengers.

seats rather than deciding randomly to
bump off travellers on an overbooked
aircraft.
Much worse is seeing First or
Business Class passengers being
downgraded at the height of the travel
season. This is not a pleasant sight.
Such cases often see those forking
out heavy bucks for the privilege of
travelling in the premium cabins,
take complaints straight to top
management and threaten to boycott
the airline for future travel as a result
of a bad experience.
At this time of the year, passengers
just want to return to their point of
origin without fuss and hassle and get
back to their daily routines.
A bad experience at the airport just
wipes out the memories of a good
holiday or indeed a good business trip.
Its easy not to understand the
airlines predicament, but this is a fact
of life in the industry. Overbooking is a
practice that will not disappear.
Its a tough call for airlines. Like it
or not, airline check-staff are in the
front line and often face the wrath
of passengers and are forced to give
explanations.
To avoid such scenarios in future,
whichever class of travel, here are a
few handy tips to ensure you get on the
ight of your choice.
Arrive at the airport as early as
possible, not the two hours typically
stipulated by the airline.
Where ight frequency on a popular
route is limited to perhaps daily, it is
prudent to take such action.
If there is a connecting ight

Airport chilling to relieve stress and checking-in early before a flight from India.

involved to the nal destination,

missing one ight can hamper the
onward journey.
At busy departure times, such
as early evening and early morning
particularly on Thursdays and
Sundays respectively at the
beginning and end of the weekend
here in the Gulf, it is advisable to take
extra measures.
Give yourself plenty of time at the
airport to avoid stress. Checking-in online
at home or office before leaving for the
airport will ease the pressure knowing you
have a printed boarding pass in your hand
or one sent to your mobile device.
Cutting it ne and arriving just
before the ight closes at check-in is
not advisable at all. We have all been
in that situation, but this is where you
are most vulnerable and no element of
arguing will get you anywhere.
The last passengers to check-in
for a ight are typically the ones who
are bumped off against their will or
involuntarily in airline lingo.
With one holiday season coming to an
end, another one is just weeks away.
Many are already booking their breaks
for the Eid al-Adha holidays and the
tips outlined should come in handy.
However, if youre planning to travel
between now and then, the worlds yours.
Flight bargains are extensive from
September 1 onwards during the off
peak travel season.
Airlines are desperate to ll seats
that would otherwise go empty. The
offers will be plentiful. Two-for-one
fares, bonus frequent ier miles and
extra baggage allowance to name a few.
Whether online, through a travel
agent, or an airlines reservation office,
booking a ight over the next few
weeks will seem like a treasure chest of
bargains galore.
And the chances of being bumped
off during the off peak travel season
are slim indeed.
Happy shopping and happy ying!
zUpdesh Kapur is a PR &
communications professional,
columnist, aviation, hospitality, travel
analyst, and writer on sports and the
Bollywood lm industry. He can be
followed on twitter @updeshkapur

Automation, productivity, and growth

By Michael Spence
Berlin

t seems obvious that if a business

invests in automation, its
workforce though possibly
reduced will be more
productive. So why do the statistics
tell a different story?
In advanced economies, where
plenty of sectors have both the money
and the will to invest in automation,
growth in productivity (measured by
value added per employee or hours
worked) has been low for at least
15 years. And, in the years since the
2008 global nancial crisis, these
countries overall economic growth
has been meager, too just 4% or less
on average.
One explanation is that the
advanced economies had taken
on too much debt and needed to
deleverage, contributing to a pattern
of public-sector underinvestment and
depressing consumption and private
investment as well. But deleveraging
is a temporary process, not one that
limits growth indenitely. In the
long term, overall economic growth
depends on growth in the labour force
and its productivity.
Hence the question on the minds of
politicians and economists alike: Is the
productivity slowdown a permanent
condition and constraint on growth,
or is it a transitional phenomenon?
There is no easy answer not least
because of the wide range of factors
contributing to the trend. Beyond
public-sector underinvestment, there
is monetary policy, which, whatever
its benets and costs, has shifted
corporate use of cash toward stock
buy-backs, while real investment has
remained subdued.

Meanwhile, information technology

and digital networks have automated
a range of white- and blue-collar
jobs. One might have expected this
transition, which reached its pivotal
year in the United States in 2000, to
cause unemployment (at least until
the economy adjusted), accompanied
by a rise in productivity. But, in the
years leading up to the 2008 crisis,
US data show that productivity
trended downward; and, until the
crisis, unemployment did not rise
signicantly.
One explanation is that employment
in the years before the crisis was being
propped up by credit-fuelled demand.
Only when the credit bubble burst
triggering an abrupt adjustment,
rather than the gradual adaptation of
skills and human capital that would
have occurred in more normal times
did millions of workers suddenly
nd themselves unemployed. The
implication is that the economic logic
equating automation with increased
productivity has not been invalidated;
its proof has merely been delayed.
But there is more to the productivity
conundrum than the 2008 crisis. In
the two decades that preceded the
crisis, the sector of the US economy
that produces internationally tradable
goods and services one-third of
overall output failed to generate any
increase in jobs, even though it was
growing faster than the non-tradable
sector in terms of value added.
Most of the job losses in
the tradable sector were in
manufacturing industries, especially
after the year 2000. Although some
of the losses may have resulted from
productivity gains from information
technology and digitisation, many
occurred when companies shifted
segments of their supply chains to

other parts of the global economy,

particularly China.
By contrast, the US non-tradable
sector two-thirds of the economy
recorded large increases in
employment in the years before
2008. However, these jobs often
in domestic services usually
generated lower value added than
the manufacturing jobs that had
disappeared. This is partly because the
tradable sector was shifting toward
employees with high levels of skill and
education. In that sense, productivity
rose in the tradable sector, although
structural shifts in the global economy
were surely as important as employees
becoming more efficient at doing the
same things.
Unfortunately for advanced
economies, the gains in per capita
value added in the tradable sector
were not large enough to overcome
the effect of moving labor from
manufacturing jobs to non-tradable
service jobs (many of which existed
only because of credit-fueled
domestic demand in the halcyon days
before 2008). Hence the muted overall
productivity gains.
Meanwhile, as developing
economies become richer, they, too,
will invest in technology in order
to cope with rising labour costs (a
trend already evident in China). As a
result, the high-water mark for global
productivity and GDP growth may
have been reached.
The organising principle of
global supply chains for most of the
post-war period has been to move
production toward low-cost pools
of labour, because labour was and is
the least mobile of economic factors
(labor, capital, and knowledge). That
will remain true for high-value-added
services that defy automation. But for

capital-intensive digital technologies,

the organising principle will change:
production will move toward nal
markets, which will increasingly be
found not just in advanced countries,
but also in emerging economies as
their middle classes expand.
Martin Baily and James Manyika
recently pointed out that we have
seen this movie before. In the
1980s, Robert Solow and Stephen
Roach separately argued that IT
investment was showing no impact
on productivity. Then the Internet
became generally available, businesses
reorganised themselves and their
global supply chains, and productivity
accelerated.
The dot-com bubble of the late
1990s was a misestimate of the
timing, not the magnitude, of the
digital revolution. Likewise, Manyika
and Baily argue that the muchdiscussed Internet of Things is
probably some years away from
showing up in aggregate productivity
data.
Organisations, businesses, and
people all have to adapt to the
technologically driven shifts in
our economies structure. These
transitions will be lengthy, rewarding
some and forcing difficult adjustments
on others, and their productivity
effects will not appear in aggregate
data for some time. But those who
move rst are likely to benet the
most. - Project Syndicate
zMichael Spence, a Nobel laureate in
economics, is Professor of Economics
at New York Universitys Stern School
of Business and Senior Fellow at the
Hoover Institution. His latest book is
The Next Convergence The Future
of Economic Growth in a Multispeed
World.