Q & A with Jorge de Jesus, Director General of TAM Airlines for Portugal and Spain

Q & A with Jorge de Jesus, Director General of TAM Airlines for Portugal and Spain

TAM Airlines’ consolidated routes linking Brazil with Spain y Portugal are transporting a huge amount of passengers from that South American country to Europe. That’s the reason why, the company assesses perspectives for agreements with other airlines who also integrate the Star Alliance so as to offer passengers more destinations. But that’s only one of TAM Airlines’ future projects for these markets.

What are TAM’s new projections and what actions are being carried out to become tourists flow between Brazil and Spain more dynamic?
We maintain our frequencies since December, 2007, with the Airbus A 330 and have recently changed the configuration: we now have a standard configuration in all of our airplanes for international flights, with four business classes in our A 330, 36 Business and 183 Economy. During these three years of operations, we can affirm that, despite last year crisis with problems that started back in 2008, the route is definitely consolidated and we are very excited about our position in the market.

How has being the behavior of passenger increase among Brazil, Spain and Portugal in these years of crisis?
It’s related to the traffic level with Europe, where the crisis has had a deeper impact; however, we have received no complain from the Spanish market, but Brazil is presently gaining momentum and that can be seen in the traffic from this South American country to Europe.

We have an important participation in this route, especially Brazil-Lisbon … we have four daily flights from Oporto and Lisbon to Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio. We presently want to strengthen our main route Madrid-Sao Paulo, and we will achieve it in brief, by using a codeshare with TAP, Lisbon-Madrid-Sao Paulo service.

We are looking forward to sign agreements with other airlines who are also member of Star Alliance. We are dealing some codeshare with Spanair, among them Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, Bilbao; because these routes are easy to combine with our flights to Madrid.

Regarding to the other offices in Europe, I could affirm that TAM counts on great traffic in the region. I think it’s being a peak year, in Paris, where we have operating for over ten years, as well as in London, Milan, Frankfort … We have three daily flights to Paris, we fly to London with Boeing 777, transporting up to 362 passengers. This year has being TAM’s best one in Europe.

What is TAM doing to maintain a good relationship with travel agencies and ensure its flights to remain for sale?
The companies have standardized commissions in the market. We base our actions in the attention to travel agents, a good service which becomes them into true partners and makes the difference between our relationship and what they have with the rest of the companies. Since we opened the route, for instance, we have carried out several Fam Trips with travel agents from the Spanish market … We have negotiated fares with some groups,  and we normally have discount tickets for travel agents.

Within TAM expansion policy, is the cargo segment important?
The cargo is vital. As part of the international experience we have gained in recent years, we still have a three-pronged commercialization of our holds through agencies in some European countries.
We have an installed structure, with manager for Europe, who is based in Madrid, and we considered it as an important activity, though it isn’t as present in international flights as it is in our national operations: TAM Cargo is quite relevant in Brazil.

How is TAM’s commercial management organized in Spain y Portugal?
It’s all managed from Madrid. Portugal is subordinated to the offices in Madrid, but it has its own criteria and offices in Lisbon, officials who directly see travel agents and the public. We have four officials in Portugal, and we will have six in brief, as a response to the passenger flow between Brazil and Lisbon. We have 48 employees in Madrid. We carry out the check in and see our passengers with TAM’s staff.

Do the share codes you have with other airlines fulfill your own specifications related to luggage and other topics?
Yes, for instance, if we are talking about the passenger who flies out of Spain: everything included in his ticket, in the contract, is fully respected when other codeshare flights of our airline are boarded. Regarding to the luggage, we maintain our policy of two bags up to 23 kilos. As for codeshare with other companies which are restricting luggage fees in Europe, everything included in the ticket is respected.

What are the benefits offered by TAM to passengers on its flights, regarding to attention, alimentation and luggage?
The luggage matter is very important for certain type of traffic segment, the ethnic one, but it isn’t so vacation or business travelers. Our main commercial function is in the Business class while our main traffic flow is in the Executive class. However, I’ll say that we are the only company who has always given conditions to tour operators; we know the market isn’t presently responding to this issue, but we keep our position for tour operators as partners, betting to the leisure tourism. Our planes are modern and, regarding to luggage and alimentation, services are the same offered by most of the airlines, though we have three menu options in Economy. But our main differencing element is the human factor, the attention we offer onboard and before taking off is definitely different from what most of the companies give. That’s what makes the huge difference, our employees’ spirit of serving.

Regarding to the multi-destination issue for Brazilian people living in Europe, there are five spots in the continent served by TAM in Portuguese language. For instance, they can land in Madrid and take off in Frankfurt, or arrive in Paris and take off in London or Milan.
One of the biggest challenges in the country, in Brazil, is improving the conditions and functioning of air terminals. There has been a strong increase of traffic in recent years and there is a lot of potential for the future. Nowadays, some 50 million passengers travel through Brazilian airports, but calculations for 2014 or 2016 aim to 100 million, which entails the necessity of relevant changes.

We are preparing ourselves as a company for those coming years, including staff training to attend and unprecedented event, the technologies we will apply to facilitate online processing, as well as other facilities.

TAM boasts about being a company with a remarkable ecological conscience. What are the latest initiatives taken on this matter?
The environmental policy is an extremely important matter for TAM. Our company is collaborating with the engine manufacturers in order to find alternative fuels. Since 2009, we are members of SAFUG (Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group), which counts on the participation of the most relevant airlines who invest in technology so as to develop less contaminant fuels.

Likewise, TAM handed, in August 2009, its CO2 emissions plan to the General Direction of Civil Aviation in France related to the routes London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt and Milan so as to fulfill EU’s environmental requirements.

Besides, our company has taken different measures related to the environmental preservation; it has joined the UN Global Pact and the Carbon Spreading Project (CDP). TAM is a member of CDP since 2006 and it’s committed to report control measure related to direct and indirect emissions.

Keeping its compromise to the sustainable development, TAM plans, during the second semester of 2010, to carry out a demonstration flight, without passengers, with an aviation bio-fuel mixture using Jatropha Curcas L.’oil, a Brazilian vegetal bio-mass. That would be the first experience of its kind in Latin America. Studies reveal that aviation bio-fuels made of Jatropha allow reducing carbon emission between 65 percent and 80 percent, compared with aviation kerosene, made of oil.