WTM14: Air Europa: “We’ve filled a gap in Latin American travel’
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Air Europa has successfully gained market share in travel from the UK to Latin America but has plans to grow further after finding its niche in the UK market, its UK general manager Colin Stewart told Travel Daily ahead of WTM.
Stewart explained that the carrier had been able to steal market share in the last three years while Iberia was integrated into IAG and LAN and TAM merged into the LATAM Group.
“While our competitors were going through a transitional phase we took advantage of that and have been very active, which has put us in a good position now,” he said. “The Latin America market has seen growth in tourism and by offering twice daily flights from London to Madrid we can offer flights to the region and the Caribbean on any day. When I first joined Air Europa just over five years ago only 8-10% of London traffic was connecting and this year that has moved up to 34%.”
The carrier will have a stand at the show for the second year in a row and will be discussing its up-coming fleet renovations and higher frequencies into destinations across Latin America.
Its services from Gatwick to Bolivia (via Madrid) recently increased from three times a week to four, while a new route to San Juan has been launched. Popular destinations from the UK include Havana, Lima and Buenos Aires.
Routes to Quito and Bogota are the most desired moving forward, but the carrier is more focused on the first of its Boeing 787 Dreamliner deliveries next year.
“The first of our eight Dreamliners will be delivered in Q4 2015 and by offering a fully-flat bed it will be a game changer for us,” Stewart said. “These will not only replenish our fleet but also allow us to look at new destinations.”
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