Shazil Mehkri is the CEO of Sastaticket.pk. In his current role, Shazil is responsible for establishing Sastaticket.pk as the leading online travel website in Pakistan.

Shazil Mehkri and Bilal Mehkri, Executive Directors at Quality Aviation then, co-founded the concept of Sastaticket.pk back in June 2015. As an Executive Director, Shazil was responsible for leading the company’s strategic direction and was also responsible for introducing and managing strategic goals with a focus on improving systems, structures, and processes within the organization. During this time, one of his biggest achievements was establishing a partnership with Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT). Today, Quality Aviation is a progressive travel management company with a presence in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Faisalabad, and Islamabad and with the strength of over 250 travel professionals.

Shazil has eight years of extensive experience of business management within different segments of the travel industry. He is an economics graduate from University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign.

Following are the edited transcripts of a conversation BR Research had with the CEO of Sastaticket.pk:

BR Research: Tell us about your business model. How is it different from regular travel agencies?

Shazil Mehkri: When we launched Sastaticket.pk, we set out to create Pakistan’s leading online travel marketplace. Our goal is to connect travelers in Pakistan with a range of travel and hospitality providers, whether that is to book your next domestic or international flight or find a hotel to stay in while you are exploring the northern areas. The key differentiator between Sastaticket.pk and a traditional travel agency is that we use technology to empower our customers – the Pakistani traveler, giving them instant bookings and comprehensive choices, and letting them be the judge of what they want to move forward with. We aim to deliver value by offering a range of travel products with the highest standard of service along with cutting edge technology.

BRR: Covid-19 has affected the travel industry dramatically. How has Sastaticket.pk been affected?

SM: Before the start of the pandemic, the global tourism industry had seen incredible growth, with travel becoming easier and more affordable than ever before. Pakistan, too, was seeing enormous demand for travel - both domestic and international - with people keen to explore new cities, countries, and experiences.

We started the year experiencing over 300 percent growth, and we were confident that we would have a record-breaking year. Unfortunately, as the world came to a halt at the end of February, our sales went down to zero, and we faced an unprecedented situation in terms of major airlines facing bankruptcy due to the sheer volume of customer refunds. This sort of unexpected halt to business was unparalleled. We had thousands of calls pouring into our call center of concerned travelers in regard to changes and refunds. We took this challenge as an opportunity to now have put systems in place to handle thousands of refunds and effectively process refunds within 48 hours.

Fast forward to today, and we are already seeing a massive rebound in domestic travel. There is enormous pent-up demand for travel and new experiences which makes us confident the tourism sector will bounce back stronger than ever before.

BRR: How did Sastaticket.pk cope in term of operations during peak lockdown days?

SM: We implemented a remote work model for the overwhelming majority of our team members, with the only exception being our customer support team. Unfortunately, we did not have the required infrastructure to enable them to work from home, but we introduced social distancing and safety measures - such as spreading our team members across multiple floors - to ensure a safe environment for them in the office.

Since last month, we have started bringing back our team members to the office for an initial two days a week. However, we have seen the value of working from home, and eventually intend to offer the option to do so - for three days a week - to our colleagues on a permanent basis.

BRR: There has been surge in domestic travel. But what is your outlook for international travel? How is the recovery shaping up for the industry in general?

SM: At present, international travel is at approximately 30 percent of pre-Covid levels for major airlines. We are hopeful that a vaccine will be out at some point next year, at which point we would expect international travel to pick up significantly.

The travel industry in Pakistan has been severely crippled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen international airlines, hotels, and travel and tour companies being forced to lay off a large number of their workforce due to the challenging environment.

Most of the travel and tourism workforce is incredibly specialized. Therefore, they cannot simply switch to another industry. It is important for the government to play its role here. Specifically, the State Bank should take an aggressive role in ensuring that businesses that have been impacted by Covid are supported until the end of the pandemic.

BRR: What does your roadmap look like for the next few months? There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding Covid-19 and travel in general. How is recovery shaping up for Sastaticket?

SM: We still have a long way to go but have been fortunate at Sastaticket that our recovery has, thus far, been better than expected. We will continue to work hard to ensure we are able to look after our clients as well as our team members as best we can.

We have spent the past few months focusing on how we can strengthen our business and, once the world opens up again, provide an even better experience for our customers. To that end, we are excited about releasing a number of new product lines as well as some major features for our platform towards the end of this year and early next year. We had a strong business strategy in place pre-Covid, and remain committed to delivering this, despite the obvious challenges.

BRR: How much funding have you raised? Do you have plans to go for another round of funding?

SM: We raised $1.5 million for our Series A round prior to the pandemic and intend to raise a Series B round.

BRR: Has Covid impacted the investor sentiment for the Pakistani startup ecosystem?

SM: I do not think that VC sentiment has been impacted for the Pakistani startup ecosystem. Investors see that this is a market of over 200 million people, with a fast-growing consumer class, that is increasingly aspirational. If anything, Covid-19 has accelerated digital adoption in Pakistan in recent months, which should play to the benefit of startups by weakening the status quo and by creating massive new opportunities for disrupting industries.