Routes Americas: “Expect more airline casualties this year”

The executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, Alex de Gunten, warned earlier this afternoon (February 14, 2010) that he expects more airline casualties this year. “It's not over, there is more to come,” he said, speaking at the Routes Americas Strategy Forum in Lima, Peru.

While the global market appears somewhat shaky during this tentative period of economic recovery, the Latin American and Caribbean markets are performing far more strongly, recording good growth rates. De Gunten said this growth is encouraging, however challenges remain due to the fragmentation of Latin American traffic. “There are 46 countries in the region, but it only accounts for 8% of the global market,” he said.

De Gunten was speaking to a packed room in the Marriott Lima Hotel during the first day of the Routes Americas event, hosted by Lima Airport Partners. While the sun decided to emerge from Lima’s hazy cloud covering, bringing a hot afternoon to the city, delegates made a special effort to sit in on the high-level panel discussions, moderated by Michael Bell, partner at Spencer Stuart.

LAP’s CEO, Jaime Daly, was in the hot seat during the panel discussion on airport privatisation in Latin American. He commented: “Airport privatisation is a reality and a necessity in Latin America. The question is not whether to privatise, but rather which model is best suited to the region.”

Tackling this question was Carlos Criado, commercial director of Quito Airport and Jose Montero, director of strategy planning at Panama’s COPA Airlines.

Earlier in the afternoon the focus was on the issue of airline consolidation – a timely topic given the recent go-ahead for the TACA and Avianca merger (cover story Routes News 1, 2010). Sharing their perspectives was Emilio Romano, a director at TAM; Horst Findeisen, vice president of business development at Star Alliance and Francisco Cueller, vice president of business development for Latin America and the Caribbean at ASM. While the three panellists offered different opinions on the pros and cons of consolidation in the region, they all agreed that the process is a highly individual one, dependent on each airline’s business model.

For full coverage of the Routes Americas Strategy Forum see the next edition of Routes News, as well as the video interviews on Routesonline soon.

Follow @routesnews on Twitter for regular event updates: www.twitter.com/routesnews

Lucy Siebert, reporting from Lima