September 4, 2014 
In This Week's Issue:

Insider Q&A: Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings S.A. 

The head of one of Latin America's largest airlines on meeting the needs of today's business traveler.

Pedro Heilbron


 

Copa Airlines is targeting business travelers in an increasing number of destinations around the Americas, aided by service to new destinations (including Montreal, Canada; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Georgetown, Guyana this year) and its largest-ever order of new Boeing 737-800 aircraft (eight new planes will allow the carrier to increase capacity by 10%). In this exclusive interview, Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings S.A., discusses what he's doing to meet the needs of today's business traveler.

 

How important are business travelers to Copa Airlines?

It's the most important sector; more than 40% of our passengers are business travelers. Our product is geared mainly toward the business traveler.

 

How are business travelers evolving, and what is Copa doing to keep up with them?

We pride ourselves in focusing on what's really important, what's most important - less on gimmicks and more on substance. [Priority] number one is on-time performance; that's what we hear from our business travelers over and over again. They need to get to their meetings on time, or they need to get to their families on time, so we focus a large percentage of our effort on being an on-time airline. We were last year the number one on-time airline in all of the Americas, and number four in the world. We won an award from FlightStats, [which] monitors on-time performance worldwide. They gave us an award for being the most on-time airline in Latin America, but actually we're the most on time in all of the Americas.

 

When will we see Wi-Fi on board Copa flights?

We haven't done anything yet in terms of connectivity like Wi-Fi on board. We haven't gotten to a point where it's economically feasible on our narrow-body fleet, flying within Latin America. It's still very, very expensive from many angles, and we still have not received from our travelers the input that it's really that important right now, but I'm sure it will be. It's just a matter of time. The technology will catch up and offer a cost-benefit equation that will make sense.

 

Technology is huge for the current traveler, and it's an evolving thing where we always have to stay ahead of the curve. You can never rest.

Copa Airlines

 

You still serve free food on many flights where competing carriers - especially from the United States - no longer do. Is this part of a strategy to give Copa a competitive advantage?

We don't necessarily look at it that way. It's part of the airline we are. We are, in that sense, old-fashioned. We're a full-service carrier with a hub-and-spoke system in Panama, and we serve meals, and we have free drinks, free liquor on our flights. ... We haven't cut back when there have been world crises or tough times. So we try to be very consistent, and I think our passengers reward us for that consistency. It could have been 10 years ago, five years ago or today, they will pretty much have the same experience on a Copa flight.

 

What else do business travelers want?

Service is important. You get on an airplane, stressed out, tired, or with a big day, a big meeting ahead of you. So you don't want to be harassed. You want very good service. So we also emphasize excellent service. Our crews have won the Skytrax award for best crews in our region a number of times - last year and the year before. We're very proud of that. 

 

Pedro Heilbron by Ana Berger; Copa Airlines by Aero Icarus

                                                                                                

News from our Partners
(Click the headlines to read full stories)

 

DeltaNew Service Between Salt Lake City and Mexico City: Delta Air Lines will launch daily nonstop service between Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah (U.S.) and Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City on December 20.

 

Salt Lake City - Amsterdam Service To Begin in May 2015: Delta will fly daily nonstop summer flights between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands and Salt Lake City International Airport in the U.S. state of Utah beginning in May of next year.


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Academic Medicine in a Top-Rated Concierge Environment: Board certified orthopedic surgeon Jonathan L. Glashow, MD and his associates specialize in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine

 

New Techniques Speed Healing: One patient explains how New York orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jonathan L. Glashow helped his shoulder injury heal

 

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Travel News

New Airline Routes and Route Changes

South America

Bolivia-based Amaszonas will add daily service between Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and Yacu�ba, Bolivia beginning October 22.

 

AeroGal has taken over Avianca's daily Bogot� - Aruba route. The change will remain in place through October 25; Quito, Ecuador-based AeroGal is part of Avianca-TACA Group.

 

On October 29 JetBlue will launch daily service between Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Miami area, U.S.) and Cartagena, Colombia.

 

Korean Air will reduce service on its Seoul Incheon - Los Angeles - S�o Paulo route to four weekly flights from five, as of September 11. 

 

Mexico and Central America

Aeromexico will add a fourth flight between Merida, Yucat�n (Mexico) and Miami (Florida, U.S.) beginning November 8.

 

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will increase its Amsterdam, Netherlands to Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport flights to nine weekly between October 26, 2014 and January 9, 2015.

 

International Connections

United Arab Emirates flag carrier Etihad Airways will begin three weekly round-trip flights between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (Texas, U.S.) and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

 

Frontier Airlines will begin flying between the U.S. city of Cincinnati, Ohio and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport(Texas, U.S.) on October 26. It will begin flights between Cincinnati and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport (Greater Miami area, Florida, U.S.) on October 28.

 

On October 1 and 2, Royal Jordanian Airlines will begin operating its new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners on routes between Amman, Jordan and the U.S. cities of Chicago (O'Hare International Airport), New York (John F. Kennedy International Airport) and Detroit, via Montreal, Canada.

 

Airline Alliance News 

Air China and China Express have entered into a codeshare agreement, connecting the Chinese cities of Chongqing, Guiyang and Dalian to their respective networks.

 

United Airlines codes will begin appearing on Air Dolomiti flights between Frankfurt, Germany and Verona, Italy, and on flights between Munich, Germany and the Italian cities of Bari, Florence and Verona. 

 

Ryanair- Business Plus

Other Airline News 

No-frills, low-cost intra-European airline Ryanair launched "Business Plus," which offers flexible ticket changes, a 20-kilogram checked baggage allowance, fast-track security screening at specific airports, priority boarding and allocated seating. Although Business Plus customers will be able to select seats in premium locations on the Ireland-based airline's planes, those seats will be the same size, pitch and spacing as economy class seats.

 

United Airlines introduced self-service baggage tagging at Chicago-O'Hare airport, adding 24 kiosks that provide luggage tags for passengers to apply themselves, along with boarding passes.

 

Allegiant Air is now charging passengers $5 to have boarding passes printed by an airport ticket agent.

 

Alitalia's Air One will shut down as of October 1, with routes from the Italian cities of Catania, Palermo and Venice ending as of September 30 and routes from Milan (Malpensa), Verona and Pisa ending on October 30.

 

Iberia Airlines will spray a signature scent, called Mediterraneo, in its lounges and airline cabins.

 

American Airlines will revamp in-flight magazine American Way, which will be run by a new publishing company.

 

The Civic Aviation Safety Authority in Australia lifted its ban on gate-to-gate use of personal electronic devices, allowing passengers access to their smartphones, tablets and laptops throughout the entire flight. 

 

Loyalty Program News 

Members of National Car Rental's Emerald Club can earn 600 points for every two rentals of mid-sized or larger cars for two or more days between now and January 31, 2015.

 

JW Marriott Santo Domingo

Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan members can book select award flights for up to 60% fewer miles between now and October 31.

 

Hotel News

The 150-room JW Marriott Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic is now open in the Piantini financial district. The hotel includes 7,335-square-foot of indoor meeting space, two restaurants and bars and complementary in-room Wi-Fi.

 

Intercontinental Hotels Group brand Even Hotels introduced Smart Bands - waterproof wristbands, embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, that enable keyless hotel-room entry and cashless transactions; guests can purchase the bands for $8. 

 

S�o Paulo: J�lio Boaro; RyanAir- Business Plus, courtesy of Ryanair; JW Marriott Santo Domingo, courtesy of JW Marriott Santo Domingo

 

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