ROUTES AMERICAS: Key Industry Issues to be Discussed in Strategy Forum

This afternoon’s Routes Americas Strategy Forum, which will mark the opening of formal proceedings at this year’s event, will attempt to highlight some of the key issues that are impacting the commercial aviation business across the entire Americas region. With a high profile list of speakers the content has been specially developed to provide a unique insight into the business with informed moderators ensuring the key issues are not glossed over.

The Strategy Forum will cover three main topic areas and will open with a discussion on Taxation - the real cost to the economy and the impact on the aviation industry. This session will be moderated by Minister Richard Skerrit, Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the panel will include Minister Glen Beache, Minister of Tourism for St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Mr Estuardo Robles, CEO of Ciudad Aeropuerto and John Kirby, Director, International, Southwest Airlines.

Taxation is, and is becoming an even more serious issue, particularly in the Caribbean where demand is mainly leisure driven. The introduction of aviation taxation schemes by European countries has impacted air traffic to the region, while new departure taxes across the Caribbean have not been introduced in as smooth a manner as had been expected. The Caribbean Tourism Organisation has campaigned for fairer taxes and it will be interesting to see how representatives of airlines and airport believe this situation will develop.

The second session will be moderated by Mark Clarkson, Vice President Consultancy Services, ASM and will explore Airport Privatisation – short term expectations, long term investment and lessons learnt from across the globe. He will be joined by panellists Jaime Daly, CEO of Latin American Airport Holding (LAAH), Patricio Sepulveda, Regional VP IATA for Latin America and the Caribbean and Philippe Baril, President of ACI-LAC.

With the ongoing privatisation of some of Brazil’s airports ahead of the football World Cup and Lympic Games this is a topical talking point. Brazil’s infrastructure desperately needs investment and expertise to deliver infrastructure able to cope with the increase in demand during and after these two events and the panel will look at the process what it could mean for the local industry and explore what is the best method of privatization: Equity investment or concession run.

The final session is on the state of the Americas market, and will look at the contrasts between the stagnating North American market, which is important for the entire Americas region as a whole, and the rapidly growing Latin American market, in particular the success of Brazil. The panel discussion will be moderated by Alex de Gunten, Executive Director, ALTA, who will share his own views on the state of the Latin American and Caribbean airline industry, the changes the industry is going through and the opportunities for the airlines of the region.

Speakers for this session include Maurício Emboaba Moreira, Senior Strategic Advisor from GOL Transportes Aereos, Alfredo Gonzalaez, VP of Tourism & International Business for Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau and Kristi Wenaus, Director – Sales & Partnerships for Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture & Heritage. We will also have a manufacturers view on the aviation market, as well as a representative from Air China that will provide a view of how the Chinese markets view the Americas, both in terms of the growing trade relations with Latin America and the existing traffic between China and the USA.