Lori Ranson:
And as the number of competitors have been reduced, does that give you any pricing traction in the market or is it right now just stimulating to get people to travel?
Estuardo Ortiz:
I think there’s been, just different market dynamic now. Bear in mind, there’s 67% less capacity, so that’s a tremendous amount of capacity, therefore, that it’s also been translated into pricing as well. And Argentina, has a trend of the evaluation on inflation needs to keep up. And we’re seeing that keeping up, which we did in before the pandemic due the competitive environment was… So all those factors added together. We were positive about, the development international operations so far.
Lori Ranson:
And I know that you’re planning to launch in Peru and you had some interest in Colombia and Brazil. Is there still interest in Colombia and Brazil for domestic operations or are you taking a wait and see approach until there’s some more clarity in terms of the recovery in the region?
Estuardo Ortiz:
Yes, you’re right. I mean, our focus now is to establish operations quickly and Argentina and Chile. And, we have been since the beginning, creating a very special network, different ULCC to where the ones, the traditional, Santiago centric or Buenos Aires centric or LIMA-centered networks. And we see that opportunity as well. We fly in Chile from three different net operational bases. Santiago, of course, but also for example, Concepcion, we used to have just one flight to Santiago before jets might not ask 10 nonstop flights and we have carried close to half a million passengers from that City. When we expand to Peru, we also open routes, to hear what are the key powers never flown before. So there is opportunity today, as well as it was five years ago, when we started. There’s a simulation to be done. There’s people who have never traveled as 160 million middle-class consumers who had traveled very little by plane. And that opportunity remained there.
So, we have indeed started a project in Peru, many months ago, to get progress made on a certification over a new AOC. We continued to watch very closely. It’s a market that we have been evaluating for quite a long time. So, it is possible that if the trend of domestic recovery close quicker than international, it becomes a real opportunity for us and we’ll continue watching Colombia but I’ll see, those two markets have recovering quicker than the others. So we keep an eye on them.
Lori Ranson:
I want to turn to product for a second because it seems like JetSmart has taken an opportunity during the pandemic to introduce new products. I think bundles and flexible bookings. It seems like, those are opportunities to help improve revenue during the crisis. So, did the pandemic accelerate plans to launch those products or was it something that the company was planning for, quite some time?
Estuardo Ortiz:
Yeah. Good question. My view is that you can never waste a good crisis. You have to take advantage of a crisis. And when this started, we had a few projects that… Because our focus was mostly on growth, we couldn’t really cope with it. And the pandemic allowed us to launch this project called JetSmart 2.0. We had two basic focuses. One that reduce costs. I believe cost is, again the most important thing, before the pandemic, during the pandemic and after the pandemic. And secondly, new products, new services for customers. The objective was simple, increase revenue per passenger, give more alternatives to consumers. I think if and then, it has shown us how important this is, customers like to pick, like to choose, and digitalization has grown exponentially. So, it has been a quantum leap in terms of adoption of digital media and digital means of purchase in South America.
So we did launch many products, during the pandemic. It’s already been four months since that started, including bundles, cold packs in our case, very successful, those fairlock, Flexi Smart, which is a product that, now it’s in flipping your ticket that allows you to change your date or your name or your route. But I think that product will stay after the pandemic. We will just sell it to consumers who are willing to buy it. And flexibility is something that I believe to a silver couple of years is going to be really important. So as a result of that, we’ve seen the revenue per passenger increased, more than 20%.
Lori Ranson:
You touched on costs. And I know that, two of the major airlines in the region, they’re obviously restructuring in chapter 11. They’re saying, they’re going to emerge much more efficient, much more competitive from a cost standpoint. But, I know that low cost operators during the pandemic haven’t rested on their laurels. They’ve been working to take cost out as well. So, how do you see the landscape once they exit chapter 11 and you all complete your cost-cutting programs? How do you see the competitive landscape at that point in time?
