Iberia had a great participation in the Vitrina Turística de ANATO

Colombia proved to be a destination of great interest for the entire tourism sector. We spoke about it with Marina Colunga, Iberia's Commercial Director for Latin America, who also told us about the future of the airline and its challenges.

What was your experience participating in an event like this?

Iberia fervently believes in Latin America as a fundamental ally for commercial expansion, not only Colombia, but in all countries. We have been working hand in hand with ANATO for several years and we bet on the growth of Colombia as a critical part of our strategy in LATAM.

Colombia has emerged as one of the markets with the strongest acceleration and as part of that it was very important to come to Anato and reactivate these conversations with the Colombian travel agencies that are fundamental in our distribution. Although we have a very specific strategy for direct channels, Colombia's allies and travel agencies have been the key to the recovery.

So, as a company we made a strategic decision to bet on Colombia and that is why the frequencies are going to grow as of June. We hope to have 18, that is, three additional flights a week and by the end of the year, if everything goes as we hope, to have three daily flights. So, Anato was a critical place to come to recover, resume the conversation with partners and ask for a vote of confidence and work together. For my taste, the fair has been at an extraordinary level: the quality of the appointments, of the world-class exhibitors, so I feel super satisfied. We support Colombia and Anato for the future.

Many different governments from the region were present, can you tell me something about that?

We had very critical meetings with the governments in terms of commercial alliances with intermediaries, with the main agencies. Within Iberia we have a vertical structure that deals with institutional agreements and government relations. They were not there, but what I can tell you is that there is a very close alliance with the Colombian government with cooperation funds to promote the visit of Europe to Colombia.

How do you position Colombia in terms of number of passengers?

Obviously the largest markets in Latin America have an important weight for Iberia because Mexico is a very large country that has three daily frequencies with us. Today it is the market with a greater weight contribution.

Brazil is another very large country with larger distribution. And Argentina, within the three largest, is the market in which we have the longest experience, with 77 flying to Argentina. So exactly the volume is very large. However, when we analyze the performance of the Latin American countries, at this moment the growth acceleration in Colombia is substantially greater than that of the other countries where we still have room to continue recovering. That is why the company analyzes and chooses Colombia as the market in which we are going to bet on increasing the frequency and bringing more planes. We are not only increasing frequencies, but we are changing our aircraft. Just as you got the new plane in Argentina, we also have the A350 in Colombia, which gives you the opportunity not only to bring more people,

Colombia is quite strong because it is not the largest country in Latin America, but nevertheless it is where we are making our investment.

How do you see the future of the company's operation?

We have to visualize where we want to go and as a company we want to expand Iberia's presence and continue to encourage the contribution of Latin America and trips from Europe to Latin America and from Latin America to Europe. We are working on a development plan to continue growing the footprint as well as the presence of our brands in the countries. Today in this first stand, let's say, is this project to consolidate the frequency.

We had to rearrange ourselves, we had to make some adjustments. If you ask me how I see it five years from now, surely many more than what we have today. The company is betting on Latin America in the long term with the expectation of expanding growth and continuing to strengthen the commercial relationship between Europe and Latin America as our main ally.

Our business for the economies of all countries undoubtedly has a contribution factor to the reactivation, tourism at a global level is a very great force.

How do you see Latin America today?

We are going to continue to evolve, we are going to continue to see alliances and we are going to continue to see opportunities to strengthen routes and offers, above all. For example, in different countries we have alliances that allow us to offer our travelers a broader offer. I believe that the offer of final destinations throughout Latin America will continue.

What did you learn as a company from everything that happened? 
Today, thanks to God we are one step ahead, one of the reflections has been to listen and be able to adjust the rudder according to the wind. Iberia has been able to reorganize itself globally in such a way that it has allowed us to remain current. We had to make adjustments, but with minimal disruptions to the point that in the first quarter of this year we are 105 percent above the capacity we had in 2019. So, yes, we had to review the model, but I think that We all learned that behind every unexpected situation there is an opportunity and it is up to each of the companies to turn it into a competitive advantage and I think we did very well, they have good drivers.