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Produced in El Salvador by:
On behalf of:
E V E R Y N E W R O U T E , E V E R Y W E E K
S U B S C R I B E T O O U R F R E E W E E K L Y N E W S L E T T E R , V I S I T W W W . A N N A . A E R O
BEVERLY NICHOLSON-DOTY,
Chairperson,
Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and US
Virgin Islands (USVI) Commissioner of Tourism
explained the recent creation of an Aviation Task
Force (ATF) in the Caribbean. She highlighted
how aviation had potential for significant
growth in the region and that the majority of the
25 million passengers arriving at the region’s
airports were mostly on intra-Caribbean flights.
Among the various categories of tasks that had
been identified for further work were: safety and
security, legal and regulatory, economic issues,
customer satisfaction and the need to estimate the
potential for new air services into and within the
Caribbean and their likely volumes. Issues that
needed to be addressed further included security
screening, visa restrictions, poor airport facilities,
weak customer focus of airport management
systems, and a lack of codeshare and interline
agreements among airlines. However, on a positive
note she confirmed that aviation was seen as key
to economic growth.
PANEL 4: VISIONS OF FUTURE FLYING
. This panel featured:
Peter Cerda, RVP The Americas, IATA (moderator); Hernan Pasman,
CEO of LAN Colombia; Dr. Fariba Alamdari, VP Market & Value
Analysis, Boeing Commercial Airplanes; Ciro Camargo, Head of
Alliances, Gol Transportes Aereos; Zhihang Chi, VP & General
Manager, North America, Air China; and Neil Chernoff, Vice
President of Network Planning and Scheduling, Iberia. Boeing
expects consolidation to continue and identified that most of the
3,000 new airplanes to be delivered in Latin America in the next
20 years will be used for growth rather than fleet replacement.
LAN Colombia’s concern was that infrastructure development was
not keeping pace with passenger growth, as Colombia had seen
double-digit growth in each of the last five years. When questioned
about Brazil’s readiness for this summer’s soccer World Cup, Gol’s
Ciro Camargo responded “We are always full of hope” and insisted
that Brazil was good at dealing with chaotic situations. Zhihang
Chi of Air China highlighted China’s approach to infrastructure
development of focusing on doing the right thing for the majority
of people. This meant that despite Beijing already being the
world’s second busiest airport, ground would be broken later
this year on a new airport to serve the capital, which would open
initially in 2018 and ultimately be capable of handling 130 million
passengers annually. Iberia’s focus recently had been on sorting
out its high cost base that had made it so unprofitable. The airline
acknowledged that with new pay deals in place with staff, it could
consider entering new markets and re-entering some old ones
(such as certain routes in Latin America). Air China only serves one
market in Latin America, Sao Paulo, and is looking to work more
with partner airlines to serve the region. Hernan Pasman of LAN
Colombia highlighted the diverse airline business models operating
in Colombia from full-service to ultra low-cost. All of these had a
place in a diverse market. Finally, Iberia saw more growth in Europe
and the opportunity to make Madrid the preferred gateway for Latin
America, which would be strengthened by TAM soon joining the
oneworld alliance.
PANEL 3: AIRPORT PRIVATISATION – THE PRICE IS RIGHT?
This panel featured:
Santiago Saltos, Senior Manager, Industry Affairs, ALTA (moderator); Daniel Ketchibachian, Commercial
Director, Corporacion America; Aluizio Margarido, Commercial Director, Viracopos International Airport;
Jorge Roberts, Director of Corporate Development, ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide; and Matt Cornelius,
Managing Director Air Policy, ACI North America. Airport privatisation has not been as popular in
the Americas as it has, for example, in Europe. Privatised European airports are achieving far greater
commercial revenues from non-aeronautical activities, which is helping to keep aeronautical fees to
airlines down. At present in the US the FAA has allowed 10 airports to be privatised and although this
has happened at San Juan, a couple of attempts at Chicago’s Midway had not been successful, possibly
due to the challenging amount of regulations in the US pertaining to running airports.
