Viva Air President & CEO, Felix Antelo at the CAPA Americas Aviation & LCCs 2022 Summit

Transcript

Felix Antelo:When we came back from pandemic, first traffic to rebound was domestic, obviously, because of travel restrictions. People felt more confident to travel within the country. If anything happened, you were— it was easy to get back home, right? As vaccination progressed and we started, you know, to get out of this pandemic, what we've seen, especially in the last, I would say, 3 to 5 months, is that, you know, international keeps growing and growing. That has to do with vaccination. That has to do with, you know, restrictions falling down in most of the countries. Peru, for example. Mexico never had restrictions. Dominican Republic. The US still an exception, and that's what we're waiting, you know, after the removal of the test that will eventually come. We think we're going to have a rebound also in the incoming traffic to the US. So we are seeing a very strong demand recovery for international markets. Now on top of those destinations, we've added Argentina and Brazil, Buenos Aires and São Paulo, where numbers are really, you know, off the roof. With passengers flying not only to Colombia but starting to connect via Medellín to the Caribbean where we fly to, you know, Punta Cana, Cancún, Mexico, Miami. So it's a really strong recovery even in low season, Laurie, with May and June, it's low season for us. I mean, even in low season we are getting loads on international markets above 90%. So really, really, you know, good demand coming in. So Buenos Aires is— we'll start in 3 weeks from now. Bookings are, you know, off the roof really. First flights are absolutely full. Mainly what we are seeing now, it's connecting traffic via Medellín to these destinations. It's Cancún and Punta Cana are kind of the leading destinations. After that you have Miami, Mexico, Mexico City. But I mean, that's because also the, you know, the seats between Colombia and Argentina were really, you know, I would say constrained because there was a bilateral between the both countries. So there's a limited capacity that you can fly. That bilateral was expanded, you know, when we did the application to give a low-cost offer in those markets where you only had legacies flying there. So it's really, really strong numbers that we're seeing, mainly in the first months, Colombian Going down to Argentina. And after that, what we're starting to see is Argentinians starting to fly via Medellín to Colombia and to the rest of the destinations we fly to. Yes. So look, I think, Laurie, consolidation, I mean, it's something that the industry desperately needs. It happened in the US some years ago. It happened in Europe. It has to happen in— it had to happen in South America, Latin America. I think that the announcement of, you know, the deal between the shareholders of Avianca with Viva first, after that the announcement of the Avra Group, are very positive news for the customers mainly. And why I say for the customers? Because this is going to be— it will allow the companies, you know, to have a stronger financial background. There will be, you know, more money to invest in technology. There will be more money to invest in new planes. And that gives you a sustainable path moving forward. I think that we will be able to offer, you know, a wide variety of value propositions, you know, to different customers, focusing on new fleet, efficient fleet, you know, low fares. We're in a— our group is going to be a group, I think, if it— when it gets approved, you know, that we will focus a lot on cost. To keeping the cost down, to keeping the fares down, right, and low prices to the customers. So I think that's coming. I think consolidation will probably get even stronger as we move along, we move forward. You need scale in this business to be successful, and that's what I think, you know, this announcement brings. We have a big order book. When I say we at Viva, Many more neos coming in until 2025. Avianca announced, publicly announced recently, you know, a new order book of around 30 new A320s, A320neos too. So it's going to be, I would say, a robust, you know, order book in terms of planes coming in, which will very likely be, you know, be— I mean, the group will decide, you know, again, that's the benefit of being in a, you know, bigger group. What's the biggest challenge you're facing? where I deploy my capacity moving forward. You know, that's one of the few advantages that aviation has is that your assets, you know, are fungible. You can move your assets around. And I think that will have to do with, you know, where we're gonna be in the next couple of years when the planes start coming in to see which are the markets, you know, that make most, more sense, you know, to deploy that capacity. Thank you.

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