How would you sum up the past year?
Paul Verhagen - For the first time in our 83-year history, we have carried more than 20 million passengers. More specifically, we carried 20.7 million passengers in 2017, representing a increase of 5 % compared with the previous year. With 13 million passengers, domestic traffic remains in the majority. But international traffic has seen the strongest growth: with 8 million passengers, this represents an increase of 14 %, compared with an increase of 1% for domestic traffic. These figures are in line with our capacity developments. What's more, we didn't just record the highest passenger traffic in 2017: we also experienced a record fill rate, at 81%. We have not yet presented our accounting results for 2017, but we can already say that the past year was a profitable one, for the eighth year running. As for the network, it now totals 93 destinations in Mexico and internationally, with eight new routes in 2017, including seven abroad.
Aeroméxico is clearly focused on the international market...
P. V. - We have no intention of abandoning our domestic routes, which remain at the heart of our business, but we are fully committed to our international ambitions and are well on the way to becoming one of the world's leading airline groups. global company. The geographical position of our hub to Mexico City is a major strategic asset both for the Americas and for connecting East and West, which we are doing more and more.
increase to two daily flights between Paris and Mexico City
What role do Europe and the French market play in Aeroméxico's international strategy?
P. V. - We have been flying to Europe for some sixty years: Madridthen Paris more than fifty years ago, and now London and AmsterdamOur new routes, which have been in operation for five and two years respectively, are our gateways to the European market. We're not just launching new routes, we're also working to increase the frequency and capacity of our flights. We recently introduced a daily flights between Amsterdam and Mexico Cityall year round. This represents a 7% increase in capacity on this line. The true innovation today concerns the airports of Madrid and Paris. At Barajas, we are increasing the number of weekly flights to 13, i.e. almost two flights a day. In Paris, we are increasing the frequency to ten flights a week this summer, starting in July. Last year, we had already changed the type of aircraft, replacing the Boeing 787-800 with a Boeing 787-900This has increased daily capacity by 35 seats. And now we are adding three new weekly flightsThese will continue until October. It's a test run, but we have every intention of maintaining the same pace throughout the year, and even eventually moving to two daily flights between Paris and Mexico CityThis means three flights every day, including our own flight. partner Air France.
Have you considered launching a flight to another French airport?
P. V. - There are no plans for this at the moment. Above all, we want to strengthen our position in Paris, with the ambition of increasing to two daily flights in the near future. The idea would be to offer two complementary flights, one arriving in Mexico City at 4am and the other at around 7pm, which would make it possible to offer a more flexible service.extend the range of connections possible from our Mexico City hub. In fact, our partnership with Air France already enables us to serve other airports in France and Europe.
How many business travellers use the Paris-Mexico route?
P. V. - On this route, 65% of revenues are generated by business customers. It is therefore an essential component.
Are you planning any new ground or in-flight services for these customers?
P. V. - We already offer the best in-flight service quality thanks to our star aircraft, the Dreamliner 787-900 and the configuration of its business class: 36 seats in 1-2-1, guaranteeing all passengers aisle access. This is already a very top-of-the-range product. We are also offering Business class passengers a free limousine transfer to and from Paris CDG airport. The fact that night flights are available to and from the airport is also a considerable advantage for business travellers, who save a day.
You've launched a number of flights to American airports in recent months. So the Trump effect may not be having such a negative impact on relations between Mexico and the United States?
P. V. - It is difficult to measureimpact of Donald Trump's electionother events took place last year, starting with theOpen skies agreement signed between the United States and Mexico which lifts the restrictions on the number of flights. So we've taken the opportunity to open up new routes. At the same time, we introduced the joint venture with Delta on traffic between our two countries, and developed connections to and from our respective hubs, notably Detroit, Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles on the US market. Demand to Mexico on the US market has increased, mainly due to the exchange rates between the Mexican peso and the US dollar. This year, as in 2017, we will be increasing our offer between Mexico and the United States by 20%. With Delta, we currently offer around a thousand flights a week between the two countries.
What about the Asian market?
P. V. - Mexico's geographical position is ideal for links with Asia. In fact, we are the only carrier in Latin America able to offer direct flights to this market. We operate a daily flight to Tokyofive weekly services to Shanghaiand now four flights to Seoul. We have therefore doubled our Asian offer in one year. There is strong business demand on this route between Mexico and Korea, thanks to the many electronics-related exchanges between our two countries. This is why we have chosen to make a stop in Monterrey on the Mexico-Korea flight.Seoul - The altitude of Mexico City necessarily meant a stopover on the outbound flight - because that's where most Korean companies are based.
we will invest 200 million dollars in 2018
What are your priorities for the coming months?
P. V. - We will be consolidating our partnership with Delta as part of our joint venture between Mexico and the United States. The aim is also to continue to grow globally. We also want to enhance our service offering, and in this respect our partnership with Delta is crucial, since it is objectively the best airline in the world in terms of operational reliability, service and therefore profitability. It's a model to follow. In total, we will be investing 200 million in 2018 in terms of product, not to mention investment in strengthening our fleet: we will receive a new Dreamliner next June, and two more by 2020.
Delta now owns 49% of Aeroméxico. Can you imagine Aeroméxico being absorbed into a giant airline?
P. V. - Who knows? A lot of interesting things have happened in 2017, there have been various capital investments between China Eastern, Air France KLM, Virgin Atlantic, Delta, which have resulted in a core group of partner airlines. Could this lead to the creation of a single airline? I don't think so, at least not for the moment, given current regulations. But the links between these different partners will continue to strengthen.
How do you view the growing number of long-haul low-costs on the transatlantic route?
P. V. - These carriers are not yet established in Mexico, but I believe that they will continue to be present in the market. This is due in particular to the aircraft that are now available, in particular the Boeing 737 Max or the A321: models that can connect regional destinations with adapted capacities. This is the key to performance for a company like Air France. Norwegianfor example. The greatest error
traditional airlines could make would be to neglect these low-cost players, as was the case with the low-cost ten or twenty years ago. Especially as we see new trends emerging, with low-cost airlines and traditional carriers joining forces to supply their respective networks. So these are companies we're going to have to reckon with from now on.
Aeroméxico also seems to be paying particular attention to new technologies...
P. V. - We can now rely on a department dedicated to innovation. This is one of the trends that Aeroméxico is trying to position itself to make a difference. We're not just trying to be a global airline, but also an innovative one, particularly when it comes to communicating with our customers. Our website was completely redesigned last year. We were one of the first companies to equip ourselves with a chatbotand on board our aircraft, our passengers can also take advantage of the partnership we have signed with Netflix.
What are your next areas of innovation?
P. V. - We want to improve communication with travellers via social networks. We are also looking to better anticipate our customers' travel habits, to understand their needs thanks to technology, and to make each traveller feel special to Aeroméxico.
This personalisation goes hand in hand with the NDC standard, which is itself associated with the idea of a GDS surcharge for certain companies...
P. V. - We're keeping a close eye on this issue, although for the time being we have no plans to take this step. The aim would be above all to offer richer content to our customers rather than to reduce GDS costs. We have very good agreements with the GDSs. What would interest us most would be the introduction of an individualised offer and better distribution of ancillary costs.
Aeroméxico in figures :
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