The Caribbean and Latin American markets are central to the growth plans of airlines looking to take advantage of the region's resilience to the current economic malaise affecting other parts of the world. That was the message from this year's Airline Business organised Network Latin America conference held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this week.
"Over the last 15 years we've seen a decoupling of the Latin economy from the US economy," said Joe Mohan, vice-president commercial at Panama City-based COPA Airlines. "The recent recession in the USA really hasn't affected Latin America - for instance Panama has grown at 9% this year. We're much more reliant on what happens in Brazil than what happens in the USA."
Delta Air Lines this year created its Latin American and Caribbean division and David Bishko, who is managing director market development and analysis for that part of the business, told conference delegates that this move signals the airline's intent to grow in the region. "We're going for the biggest growth opportunities, and those are in Latin America.
He said that while Delta's traditional prime markets like Europe and the Domestic USA do not have as much growth potential, there are "exciting opportunities" in the Latin American region: "We've been in Latin America for some time but that has not been the focus of our network so we kind of consider ourselves a newcomer to the market. We may have been a bit late in the game but we're here at the right time.
"Brazil is probably the most exciting opportunity for us. But it's not just Brazil - It's across South America, it's Mexico, and the Caribbean."
As part of its drive into Latin America, Delta has just formed a strategic tie-up with Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes which involves the US carrier acquiring a minority interest in the Brazilian low-cost airline. "Gol has been tremendous in stimulating new traffic. Brazil is one of the highest growth countries in the world and Gol is the perfect partner as it is right in the centre of where that growth is occurring," said Bishko.
Dave Clark, director of route planning at JetBlue, said that the Latin American and the Caribbean markets account for about a quarter of the airline's capacity and it now serves 23 destinations in the region.
"JetBlue has been growing at 5-8% per year and will continue to do so, which is in contrast to the rest of the US industry which is roughly flat or contracting a little. This [Caribbean] expansion will continue and Puerto Rico will be the backbone of this growth in the region."
Southwest's manager international planning Evan Berg said the airline is working to complete the integration of AirTran Airways early next year: "We'll be looking to leverage our extensive domestic network [to penetrate] the international market place. We're making progress with our reservation systems replacement and that's something that's going help us grow in the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America. I hope that as we get this reservation system we'll be able to expand our network more than just on the AirTran network."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
