Q & A with Adela CastroCOPA Airlines Representative in Cuba
by Yizzet Bermello
July and August promise to be a couple of busy months for COPA Airlines. The air carrier will ramp up to three daily flights its route between Havana and Panama, and will add five new and major connections to its portfolio. All this in an effort to provide its passengers with a much broader and more functional coverage within the region from the Hub of the Americas at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City.
About these and other issues, Caribbean News Digital talked exclusively with the air company´s representative in Cuba.
Q.- How long has COPA been flying to Cuba and what reasons drove the company to beef up this particular route?
A.- COPA Airlines has been flying to Havana since June 1995. As a matter of fact, last year we celebrated our tenth anniversary in this destination. This route came into being with the objective of creating an easier channel for tourists, but above all for businesspeople because there´s always been good trade ties between Cuba and Panama´s Colon Free Trade Zone.
We started out the route with three weekly flights until 1999 when the increasing demand made us jump to a couple of daily flights. This month, in July, we´re going to add a third daily flight between Panama City and Havana.
Q.- What has moved COPA to increase flights? Is it also related to demand increments?
A.- Absolutely. This increase has to do with the ever-growing number of passengers that rely on this particular route and is closely linked to COPA Airline´s goal of putting more flights in the air in a piecemeal fashion, especially in those destinations within the region where we have been going strong lately. The objective here is to try to facilitate the flow of tourists and passengers traveling for leisure or business reasons.
Q.- You´re currently flying to Havana. Are you planning to reach out to other destinations inside Cuba?
A.- That´s a possibility we haven´t ruled out for the future. We´re considering a number of different destinations in the region that are pretty interesting. They are good choices for the company to expand and enhance its coverage from the Hub f the Americas in Panama City. With that view in mind, we´ll also start flying to five other regional destinations between the months of July and August. This effort will improve connections among all major cities and will foster far more trade and tourist exchanges.
Q.- What are those five new destinations COPA will start flying to beginning this summer?
A.- Brazil´s Manao, Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, Uruguay´s Montevideo, Venezuela´s Maracaibo and San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Later on we´ll start flying to Port of Spain in Trinidad & Tobago, all through the Hub of the Americas. From that moment on Cuba will be connected to all those major cities of the region.
Q.- Amid the ongoing oil frenzy in the world market, how hard has COPA been hit by the soaring price of crude and fuel?
A.- Well, the increase of oil and fuel prices have pounded all airlines, the entire aviation industry, and COPA has not been the exception to the rule. But I believe we´ve been able to cope with situation in a cost-efficient manner and by keeping our spending figures under wraps.
Q.- What other airlines does your company have codeshare flights with?
A.- With Cubana de Aviacion, Mexicana, GOL and Aerorepublica. In the case of Continental Airlines, we have a strategic alliance with it.
Q.- What major plan does COPA have in store for the near future?
A.- Our main plans are moving in two directions. First of all, we want to buttress the company´s route layout by putting more flights to the different destinations, on the one hand, and on the other hand by providing more air regional coverage and functionality to the Hub of the Americas in Panama City.
