ASM held its first Latin American & Caribbean Fundamentals of Air Service Developemt Training course, hosted by Tocumen International Airport in Panama City between July 24 and July 26, 2012. Though ASM has been running the route development training programme for over 15 years in Europe, Asia and the US, this was the first to be held in the region.
Senior delegates from all over Central/South America and the Caribbean participated including a good mix of regional tourism authorities and airport management. These included representatives of Quito International Airport, Santiago International Airport, Bogota International Airport, Montego Bay International Airport, San Jose Juan Santamaria International Airport and St Louis International Airport. Tourist authority attendees included delegates from St Lucia Tourist Board, Mexican Tourist Board and Cartagena de Indias Tourism Corporation. Although from different arenas, all these delegates were focussed on delivering their market sustainable route development.
The demand for new airline capacity is high and the competition amongst airports for additional airline service is tough. Delegates heard how airlines are taking a very conservative and prudent approach to their expansion plans, with rising costs and stagnant demand in many traditional markets. Opening new services, particularly those with no disenable history of traffic represents a huge risk on the part of airlines. The route development course attempted to show airports and tourism agencies how to approach their target market and help minimise the perception of risk, as well as scoping the business case to the airline.
The message about caution and risk-management was reinforced by Jose Montero, the Director of COPA Airline's Network Development Department. He wanted to hear from airports with sustainable, growing markets that may have a potential for future COPA operations. Whilst airlines have access to data, they rely on airports and tourism authorities to deliver the view of the market and to define what drives the data. Delegates learnt that data in itself will not deliver a new route or airlines service; this was a clear message from COPA.
Working through the three days, ASM helped participants deal with a number of real air service development issues such as how to expand the presence of US carriers without destabilising the existing national carrier; how to encourage low cost airline competition without undermining incumbent legacy operation; and how to open up new and emerging markets such as China to long-haul carriers. Focussing on the three mainstays of any route development strategy; the market, customers and competition, delegates were able to leave the course with a clearer understanding of how to develop their aviation business and specific projects that would have a material benefit to their business, economy and future.
Feedback from the participants has been extremely positive as delegates have put theory into practice. The training was lead by Gordon Bevan, Vice President Consulting Asia Pacific, ASM, while Mark Raggio, Manager, Consulting – ASM Americas and Stan Hula, Senior Consultant, ASM providing an airline perspective for participants. The event was organised by David Appleby, Director - Latin America & The Caribbean, ASM, who worked closely with Tocumen International Airport ahead of and during the event. It is understood that a second session could take place in the future with a number of airports expressing interest in hosting the ASM Latin American Route Development Training.
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