ROUTES AMERICAS REPORTBACK
Hot topics at Routes Americas W
e had positive growth numbers in the local GDP here in the Dominican Republic this year. At this event we have close to 400 delegates, so there is a lot of optimism. People have told me they are quite surprised about Santo Domingo as a city. We hope that this will have long-lasting impressions on some of the key decision makers in the industry. We [Aerodom] have 23 meetings with airlines from Canada, the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.”
Andrew O’Brian, CEO/general director, Aerodom SIGLO XXI
O I
n January we welcomed two airlines to Changi – Hong Kong Airlines (daily) and Air Macau (twice weekly). In the coming months I believe we will see a lot more of these types of services driven by growth in
Asia. Singapore’s economy has also been performing strongly. Last year we grew by 14% – the largest increase in the world. Tourism continues to develop, as Singapore has transformed itself by opening two new integrated resorts. From China we will see more new city links: Jetstar now operates to five different cities in China, including Shantou and Guilin. One of Singapore Airlines’ new routes is São Paulo, which is three times a week. Operating time is about 26 hours as it is operated Singapore–Barcelona–São Paulo. This is exciting for us, because it is not just a new city link for us; it’s a new continent link.”
James Fong, assistant director for airline development, Changi Airport Group
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ur two main growth areas over the past two years have been Boston and the Caribbean. Our two main focuses in the Caribbean have been Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which are a very good fit with our network in North
America. We are very big in New York, Boston, and South and Central Florida, which are home to a lot of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, so it fits very well with our gateways in the US. We are proud to now be the largest carrier in the Dominican Republic. Later this year we will be the largest carrier in Puerto Rico. We continue to add new routes – we have just announced Boston–Santiago, which will be our third Dominican destination from Boston. We serve four destinations in the Dominican Republic and keep joining the dots between those four and our gateways in the US. We also have Puerto Rico growth coming up soon – we will launch Tampa to San Juan in May, as well as Jacksonville to San Juan.”
Dave Clark, director of route planning, JetBlue T
he geographic position of Panama means that we are connected to all of Latin America through Panama City. Copa is our ‘main ally’ for tourism.
However, we are always trying to get more airlines. We would like to have JetBlue or WestJet. We are talking to Chicago because we want a direct flight to complement our other US routes. The biggest Panamanian community outside of Panama is in New York so we are talking to JetBlue, which already flies to San Jose and to Bogotá. We were also talking with ANA, as they are planning to go direct from Narita to Panama, but they need to have the B787. This will open the door to Asia.”
Fernando de Leon de Alba, deputy general administrator, Authority of Tourism, Panama
>>> We caught up with a few delegates at Routes Americas, from a variety of organisations, to find out what they are focused on for 2011.
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