Jetrader - Autumn 2018 - 47

In advance of his keynote presentation at the ISTAT Latin America Forum in Lima, Perú, 14-15 November, Eduardo Fairen, CEO of Viva Air
Perú, spoke with Jetrader about the carrier's growth, challenges specific to aviation in Perú and much more.
Jetrader: You took over as CEO for Viva
Air Perú just a few months ago in May.
Prior to your current role, can you give
us a quick update on your career path up
until this point?
Eduardo Fairen: I was named as CEO of
Viva Air Perú on 3 January, but we made
the announcement in May because we were
going through an internal restructuring
process. I joined the company when it had
only five aircraft, and today we have 14.
We are moving quickly - perhaps not as
quickly as some other startups and low cost
carriers in the rest of the world, but our
market is obviously quite different than
others, so our challenges are unique.
Prior to this role, I worked for Viva
Colombia, where I was vice president of
operations. In that position, I ran everything related to operations, like airports,
crews and maintenance. Before that, I
was with Lufthansa Consulting, working in Africa in Cameroon, where I was
the vice president of operations and COO
for a while, helping to start Cameroon
Airlines Corporation for the government
of Cameroon. Before that, I was vice
president of flight operations for Vueling
Airlines, which I founded in 2004, and I
stayed there through an IPO and a merger
with Clickair.
I have been happy jumping around a bit
in the airline industry for a few years, but
I'm excited about Viva Air Perú's future.
Jetrader: As you settle into the role of CEO,
what are some of your big-picture goals?
EF: We started the company in May 2017
just to test if the location we selected
was the right one, and by November or
December, we determined that our assessments were correct, which is what launched
our growth plan, led by Declan [Ryan, Viva
Air CEO], to grow Viva Air Perú in this part
of the world.
And that's the goal: to continue with
healthy and profitable growth and to have

a large presence here in Perú. Obviously,
any growth depends on the conditions of
the market and the level of infrastructure available to us, but for the next
three or four years we are focused heavily
on growth.
Jetrader: You've said that a large obstacle
to Viva Air's growth is at least partly due
to bureaucratic issues in the region. Can
you elaborate on some of the governmental problems the carrier has encountered
that have stifled growth and how you can
work around them?
EF: What we have in Perú is a monopolistic market that's mainly dominated
by LATAM [Perú] and incredibly high
fares. And that helps when starting up
a product like ours because there is a lot
of untapped demand that is willing to
travel, and this market has historically
been dominated by traditional airlines.
But, the market doesn't know anything
about an LCC model or how it works, and
that's understandable. People are reluctant to accept that what you're telling
them is possible because they say "Why
is this lunatic coming here telling me that
there's a different approach? Things have
been this way for years."
Outside of those challenges, you have
a bureaucratic state structure where they
have their own velocity - they work at
their own speed. And we're facing the same
restrictions that the rest of the competition and the market have seen that have
impeded access to the market.
And Perú is well behind in terms of
infrastructure; there hasn't been much
investment in airports, while aviation has
grown significantly in the past 20 years,
which has led to the problems that we
have here in Lima with limited available
capacity. At the same time, in the country's structure, Lima is the center point
for almost everything. This should change.
If we want to have aviation and if the

country wants to have more tourism, it
needs to invest heavily in infrastructure
and open new gates into the country to
make it accessible to the tourist demand
that is knocking on the door.
But moving the elephant is not so easy
and takes time. Sometimes you need
to be harsh and say difficult things. If
you're being transparent and honest in
what you're saying, even if the message
is difficult - and they may not like it -
sooner or later the light will come on. We
have started working with the government
agencies and telling them, in our opinion,
where the weaknesses are and what we
think can be improved. That means not
just waiting for new infrastructure or new
investments to arrive, because a lot of
things can be done in better management
and administration.
I can tell you that after six months, we
are seeing the first signs that something
is changing. It's not dramatic, but we're
seeing the first steps in the right direction.
Jetrader: Aside from bureaucratic problems, what are Viva Air's main challenges
for growth in the region?
EF: It's important to note that not all
the problems we're facing are unique to
Perú, but there are unique challenges. There
are clearly policies and structures that are
impeding the arrival of competition. For
example, there are no discounted fares;
there is a flat fee for almost everything,
which prevents any other competitor from
starting their operations here because the
amount of costs you are assuming from day
one. When all the benefits of this extra
traffic end in the same pocket, it's clearly
not a balanced situation.
We have seen this in Europe - and
obviously the United States has a different structure - but in Europe this has
been the case for years. We saw that when
competition started between the different
airports, aviation immediately began to

Obviously, any growth depends on the conditions of the market and the
level of infrastructure available to us, but for the next three or four years
we are focused heavily on growth.
Jetrader * Autumn 2018 47

Jetrader - Autumn 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Jetrader - Autumn 2018