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IATA regional VP Americas Peter Cerdá, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "Latin America is a region which has tremendous potential over the next 15 to 20 years. We're expecting around 400 million new passengers to start flying for the first time... The middle class is growing". Mr Cerdá added: "The biggest challenge we see is political, because we have a large number of countries going through political changes and elections... The region after the pandemic is better connected than it ever has been before. We've already surpassed 2019 numbers, we've recuperated on passengers and on number of flights, you have new airlines entering the market and beginning to create new opportunities in markets". Mr Cerdá also stated: "You can be anywhere in the world and get to Latin America in one stop, which wasn't the case 15 years ago".

Sun Country Airlines SVP and chief revenue officer Grant Whitney, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "We have a pretty good sized footprint in Latin America, from Minneapolis we have the most nonstop destinations in the winter to that part of the world". Mr Whitney added: "What's been really exciting is that there's just been demand and we're definitely a US point-of-sale - and Minnesota point-of-sale - but customer willingness to go to these destinations has been really encouraging". Mr Whitney also commented on prospects for growth in the region, stating: "There's opportunities for us in the longer term to think about rounding out on seasonality in those markets that have a bit of a second quarter or third quarter demand spike… Maybe taking folks back to visit families, relatives - that sort of traffic".

American Airlines director South America operations and strategic partnerships Gonzalo Schames, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, commented (10-May-2024) on the carrier's regional operations, stating: "Today we are flying to almost 100 destinations and almost 330 flights per day... In Mexico alone we have 28 destinations. So our commitment to and the importance of the region for American is huge".

Cathay Pacific SVP Americas Chris van de Hooven, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "2023 was when Hong Kong reopened to the world and we had a lot of catching up to do. We're 17 months into our rebuilding journey, which is a 24 month process. But I have to say 2023 was nothing short of extraordinary in terms of recovery". Mr van de Hooven added: "Our forecast at the moment is we'll be back to pre-pandemic levels at the end of this year or 1Q2025". Mr van de Hooven also commented on the third runway at Hong Kong International Airport, stating: "Hong Kong has historically always been constrained and still is today but the [new] runway system will be fully operational at the end of the year and that is going to increase capacity by up to 120 million passengers and 10 million tonnes of cargo per year".

Qantas Airways senior EVP the Americas Oronzo Miccoli, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (09-May-2024) "Long haul is ingrained in how we set up the entire business, out of necessity". He added: "Six or seven years ago, we realised our flight planning system is so critical to our operation, because of the way we have to optimise fuel for a 17 hour sector. We realised an off the shelf product that was customised wasn't going to be optimal, so we went and built our own with industry partners, because we needed that to be a leader in long haul aviation". Mr Miccoli also commented on the carrier's network rebuild in the Americas, stating: "Once the taps were turned on and the borders were open, demand came through and came through fast, and our challenge was getting aircraft back in the sky fast to fulfil that demand. We're probably at 80% capacity relative to pre-pandemic. To be honest, we've stopped trying to reference to that pre-COVID period because our network structure is fairly different". Mr Miccoli added: "We're slowly but fundamentally becoming a more point-to-point direct carrier. We know our customers are demanding that... and we know they're willing to pay a premium".

Japan Airlines regional VP global sales the Americas Steve Myer, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "There's two sides to the corporate recovery - North America is starting to come back to some previous levels... But then if you look out of Japan, it's still much, much lower". Mr Myer added: "One of the big factors is the foreign exchange rate, it's really making it prohibitive for people to come [to North America]... Japan's foreign investment in the US is still unmatched and I think we'll continue to have a strong corporate demand, it's just not back yet".