The CEO of Flybondi, Mauricio Sana, asserts that what is needed in Argentina to be able to grow is “predictability, because foreign investors tell us that we are not going to have it in the next three years and I have to permanently convince them that It’s not like that.”
In dialogue with Aviacionline, Sana states that “today for the business to continue functioning correctly, we believe that the issue is predictability, we are an Argentine company, an Argentine flag airline, and like any other, needs a long-term plan.”
“That is what we try to generate every year, because every year the conditions change. “So we invest a lot of time in searching to generate predictability, on a totally unpredictable environment,” explained the manager.
He pointed out that he has his “investors saying that I am not going to have predictability in 3 years, so all the time I am playing with convincing them, I depend on the confidence that I can show them as investors, in a context that is not under my control and that I can’t explain well either.”
“The only way I can convince them that Argentina is a good project is to show them that everything that was said would happen, happens then. That the government says that something will be done, and then be it , and we do our part,” he remarked.
And he warned that “if the political sign changes again in the next elections, I will lose predictability, but what we achieve as a company in these years is what will give us the security and viability of the business.”
Continue despite political changes
“We are preparing so that the company and the market are perpetuated regardless of political changes, but it has to be aligned with commercial policy, not party’s politics” he reflected.
Regarding the operation of the company, he highlighted that “the growth today has stopped for almost a year, we had to stop it due to the whole issue of payment flow from abroad and this year, although it may seem strange, the problem is not the fleet, but the chain. of parts supply”.
“That is why it is important to be able to reduce the impacts on the programming we have, because it is certain that we do not know when we will be able to receive a spare part, sometimes we do not know if we will get it”. “This mixture of not being able to reactivate growth, added to the fact that my parts supply chain is so vulnerable, creates a situation that is difficult to manage and difficult to explain to the passenger,” he admitted.
He added that “today of the 15 aircraft that make up the fleet, there are 12 in flight and the operation of those 12 is already controlled. The problem is the impossibility of adapting to contingencies, we do have a plan for normal contingencies, with the 12 planes I can at least cover one contingency.”
Five more aircraft with ACMI system
Sana pointed out that it is in a position to incorporate 5 more aircraft through the ACMI system, which is a type of leasing of aircraft with foreign registration, together with its crew.
“This makes it possible to have support in the market, without having to hire new crews, since some companies have planes, tripulations and resources to come and cover the demand,” he noted.
Flybondi has been working with this scheme for some time with the Civil Aviation National Administration(ANAC) to find a regulatory figure that allows bringing these aircraft to Argentina.
The situation is about to be resolved and the low cost company has advanced conversations with a company from Lithuania, but also with Spain, Romania, Chile and Brazil and the option appears as a solution, not only to increase the operation, but to consolidate the own fleet, since the aircraft that would arrive would do so with maintenance included.
