CAPA News Briefs

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".

IATA regional VP Americas Peter Cerdá, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, commented (10-May-2024) on challenges within Latin America, stating: "The economic, social and political landscape of the region is consistently shifting. We're talk about how volatile our industry is with very thin margins of success and we're always consistently adapting". Mr Cerdá added: "Similarly to Canada, the political challenges we face in these countries are very difficult, in a region that is highly dependent on air service... I'm very optimistic we have opportunities but the political landscape is a deterrent in doing business".

Sun Country Airlines SVP and chief revenue officer Grant Whitney, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, commented (10-May-2024) on the carrier's growth plans, stating: "We're contemplating adding service into existing markets - a lot of our longer haul Caribbean markets fly once a week and they've been performing pretty well. We're balancing a little bit between whether we grow our winners which are already established or whether we go into new markets".

American Airlines director South America operations and strategic partnerships Gonzalo Schames, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "The cargo business is really important in the region, we have a lot of cargo-only aircraft coming to the region with huge competition. Demand is still strong, even though cargo demand is down compared to previous years due to more competitors in the market". Mr Schames added: "Business is really strong, especially in Chile, Argentina and Brazil".

Cathay Pacific SVP Americas Chris van de Hooven, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "We have an ambition to become one of the world's greatest service brands. That's kind of our north star, big thinking vision. How are we going to support that growth? It's through recruitment". Mr van de Hooven added: "Last year we expanded our workforce by 20%, we recruited over 4000 new employees into the business... This year we're expanding our workforce by 25%". Mr van de Hooven also commented on potential growth plans in Canada, stating: "Toronto and Vancouver are our two gateways... Our intention is to gradually thicken up those existing gateway cities in the Americas. We have no new destinations per se on the horizon at this point in time... For the moment it's just thickening up those existing routes".

Qantas Airways senior EVP the Americas Oronzo Miccoli, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, commented (09-May-2024) on the carrier's Project Sunrise programme to connect Sydney nonstop with New York and London with A350-1000 equipment, stating: "There's still a sense of disbelief around in terms of that being possible. We're about two years away, we're expecting to launch that in 3Q2026". Mr Miccoli added: "We are constantly looking for ways to differentiate and create a sustainable competitive advantage... The onboard experience is going to be quite unique. We've invested huge amounts in research to redesign the entire experience". Mr Miccoli also said the arrival of the A350s in 2026 will "unlock some capacity" in the airline's system "to look at new markets".

Japan Airlines regional VP global sales the Americas Steve Myer, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas 2024, stated (10-May-2024) "North America is quite critical... Our role in North America is really critical to the success of the airline". Mr Myer added: "Bringing on more A350-900s, as well as neos, 787-9s - those especially will help us. I would expect in the future that the Americas will play a role with those aircraft".