Q & A with Eduardo Pinto Lopes, Executive President of Sohnando, the Pestana Group’s tour operator

Havanatur and EuroAtlantic, a company from the Pestana Group, will soon open a new air connection for the Lisbon-Oporto-Havana route beginning July 11, the maiden flight date. The accord will allow stepping up the amount of Portuguese trekkers coming to Cuba and will pave the way for further offer expansion. On this joint agreement, the company’s Executive President Eduardo Pinto Lopez talked exclusively with the CND newspaper.

Q.- Can you explain the details of this new operation that between the Pestana Group’s EuroAtlantic Airways and the reasons behind the choice of Cuba in this moment in time?
A.- The company I represent has shareholders from the Pestana Group and EuroAtlantic –the group’s airline. It’s all among these three partners. I’m the company’s executive president and I’m also at the helm of the entire distribution strategy for the Pestana Group.

We’re a tour operator, a wholesaler that deals with several specialties. We own the Terra brand that stands for each of the Terra Africa, Terra Brazil, Terra Europe, Portugal’s Terra Minha and now Terra Cuba and Terra America, because we’re starting out with a couple of charter operations, one for Miami and the other for Orlando, beginning July 18.

The idea of operating in Cuba came into being out of a relationship and an invitation made to the Pestana Group by the government during FITUR 2008. Our group was invited to know Cuba and make the most of those areas it works best, as investors in the hotel sector –a process that’s making headway and bears watching right now.

Since we began working here we conducted an assessment of the Portuguese market and we realized that over the past ten years or so, those tour operators working destination Cuba, around 89 to 90 percent of their efforts were poured into selling Varadero, the sun-and-beach product.

However, based on Havanatur’s experience we also realized that Cuba has a lot more to offer than just Varadero. There’s a pretty good product down here, a product that’s branching out and makes things happen if you really have some imagination.

At the same time, this is a destination that due to its sociopolitical and entrepreneurial characteristics called for a strong Cuban partner, so we picked Havanatur, an incoming agency with a flair for tour operations. Sooner rather than later, we were speaking the same language.

Furthermore, Cuba’s Tourism Ministry is determined to raise the number of tourists coming to the island nation, to open new markets, even thought there’s a major drawback on the way which is the airlift. But we own an airline that could help us get the job done for Terra. Putting all that much together leads to the perfect solution to grow at marketplace levels.

Q.- How many weekly flights are you going to implement?
A.- We’re going to kick off with a flight for the Lisbon-Oporto-Havana route, something very new because we’re going to be the very first company to have a nonstop flight from Oporto to Havana. In addition, this is a pretty modern airport in northern Portugal and near Galicia, so we’re going to clinch our market and the one in that zone of Spain with so many close ties with the Cuban people for historic, cultural and blood reasons.

In the same breath, we’re going to give Spaniards that can’t fly on their own aircraft to use our airline for the Cuba connection from any province of western Spain, from the south and the north.

For that purpose we have the edge because we count on a very competitive airport for air connections from different parts of Europe. We want to make sure that flight timetables could allow for a chance to get the biggest share of the traffic in those parts of Europe, especially between Lisbon and Oporto.

Q.- What aircraft are you going to use for these operations?
A.- We’ll be using a 275-seat Boeing 767 jetliner from EuroAtlantic. And we’re going to make use of the plane’s commercial seats to promote Havanatur’s multi-destination offers as well, just the first step of a long way to go in terms of joint operations between Havanatur and Terra Cuba. At the onset, the flight will be shared fifty-fifty by both parties. On the hand it’s us, with our market dynamics within the outbound market, and on the other hand it’ll be Havanatur working through its different offices scattered all across Europe for the best interest of this flight. We think the end result is going to be very good because we’re going to get cracking in the high-peak travel season.

I don’t believe it would be too much because putting three flights in the high-peak season is just what tour operators have been doing over the past three years in Varadero. The new factor here is the addition of destination Havana. However, Varadero accounts for 20 percent of our business, not 90 percent. The most worrisome thing for us is the coming of a global Cuba and we think we could try a charter flight next year to cover the sun-and-beach product, not in Varadero, but probably in Jardines del Rey, Holguin or any of the offshore keys.

Q.- Will there be any chances to have a charter flight in the off-peak season?
A.- Our charter flight is going to operate all year round, though we’re going to beef it up in those times of the year in which the outbound market calls for more seats. Maybe next year we’ll be knocking together a program for youngsters –which as a matter of fact is something we don’t know why it’s not in place in the Portuguese market, even though there are great conditions to do that.

Q.- We’ve heard rumors that the Pestana Group has intentions to share the management of those hotels it runs in Cuba. Is that true?
A.- There’s indeed an intention to do that, but we still have a long way to go in that sense. However, the Pestana Group, Tourism Ministry of Cuba, and the Cuban government see eye to eye in that respect, and that certainly make things easier.

The Pestana Group ranks among the world’s top-100 hotel chains. And if the Cuban government can have a Portuguese hotel chain operating in Cuba, it’s obvious that hotel chain will get the upper hand because it belongs to the Pestana Group, a company with vast experience in the Americas.

Q.- Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Just mention that we’re really flabbergasted by Havanatur’s organizational capabilities and the responses the company has given us. However, we’ve pinpointed those areas in which we need to work harder as part of our joint efforts, and that’s for sure going to reap better and bigger benefits for both.