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Right
now it is good to be Carmen Taylor, Managing Director of American Airlines’
Latin America Division.
Not only is she receiving positive feedback
for being featured as part of our Women in Air Cargo series, but she
also happens to reside in one of the most beautiful, lush places in
America.
Carmen reports that this time of year,
Miami, Florida is “beautiful with palm trees, beaches, no storms
plus lots of sunshine and wonderful American Airlines.”
“A lot of my customers that read
FlyingTypers have congratulated me, and written from all over
the world about women being featured by American Cargo.
“I am extremely flattered and mostly
humbled by the whole experience, including being invited to be part
of a panel at the recent CNS partnership last month in Phoenix, Arizona.
“It was an interesting experience,
but unfortunately the format was not what we were originally told to
expect.
“We prepared for a series of questions
about what we do, however, what ended up happening was that everyone
on the panel made statements about their service until the time for
the session ran out.”
Carmen brings to words what a baseball
pitcher must think when ready to throw a killer fastball for a strike
out only to be told to intentionally walk the batter by the team manager.
But rather than feel frustrated, she is
upbeat and filled with more than a little bit of love, understanding
and joy at the world around her.
The beautiful part of what we do here
is talk to air cargo people, listen and hope for some answers.
Sure, cargo show panels get long winded
and maybe CNS should get its act together, but we decide to raise that
beef another day.
The news here is what dear Carmen could
not say a couple weeks ago at PHX.
So we ask the question and we are surely
glad we did:
What was it that you really wanted to
tell everyone at CNS Carmen?
“I knew the audience would know
about Latin America, my area of cargo expertise, so I thought long and
hard about what to say that maybe they did not know.
“American Airlines continues to
invest in Latin America and is adding more capacity whilst going after
new markets to serve all the time.
“Simply put, the economies of the
Latin American countries right now require that our airline make major
investments both in service and infrastructure and AA is doing just
that.
“Air cargo people should know that
AA has been in Latin America for the past 25 years. This is testimony
to the fact that a long time ago, our senior management had a vision
of the market that has held steady all these years.
“Now a lot of carriers have awoken
to the potential, but it should not be forgot that American Airlines
invested and continues to build links right here in our own backyard.
“Today our brand is very well established
in Latin America amongst a loyal group of shippers and customers who
know we are continuing to build and invest in their success.”
In terms of growth, Brazil, where the
hot news just keeps on coming, gets six cities service from American
Airlines; the carrier goes into Brazilia, Belo Horizonte, Rio, São
Paulo, Recife and Salvador.
“We are adding frequencies on our
Miami-Belo Horizonte flight (a key destination for business) to daily
service during the fourth quarter of 2011.
“American is also launching services
to Manaus starting in Spring 2012.
“We are the number one USA carrier
to Brazil.
“Last year we added capacity into
Argentina with flights four days a week, keeping service on a seasonal
basis and ramping up during the fourth quarter, which is music to our
freight forwarders’ ears as that time of year is when the major
movements of inventories and perishables really get going.
“Starting June 9th, we are adding
wide-body capacity into Bogota and Lima, Peru from Miami, bringing a
major amount of lift for southbound cargo traffic and upcoming northbound
perishables traffic as mentioned later this year.
“Consignments moving from Latin
America to Europe via Miami as part of our AA Cool program (launched
in 2006) will greatly benefit from the added capacity.
“Although Summer 2011 is yet to
start, believe me, in many parts of Latin America all thoughts are on
the market this fall and American Cargo is ready for it.
“AA Cool is a good example of our
market-savvy hands working all the way for and with our customers.
“Let’s say we are moving asparagus
from Peru to Europe – a huge item during the late year.
“We bring down the temperature in
our containers to a level that actually slows the ongoing growth of
the asparagus, which continues even after the vegetable is picked and
packed for shipment to London, Paris and Madrid.
“These movements continue right
through winter into the early spring.
“So now, Peru is growing asparagus
all year round.”
Another market that has opened up (unfortunately)
due to the tsunami and earthquake in Japan has been the movement of
asparagus from Peru to Japan.
“We are supplying lift to Japan
for asparagus from Peru via Lima/Miami, Miami/New York, Miami/Chicago
or Miami/Los Angeles, where our B777s offer non-stop services right
into Narita, Japan.”
Finally with all said and done, we asked
Carmen if she would be willing to try a trade show panel again despite
being somewhat muted at CNS, and her answer was instant and emphatic.
“Absolutely!
“Any time I have a chance to be
in front of a customer, I jump on it!
“And guess what?
“If I am not ready to talk, then
our competitors will be.”
We keep thinking about this wonderful
lady lifting not only air cargo, but everyone in the industry as well.
Sure, the airline story is there and American
is a great and expansive global air cargo resource.
But 2011 is the year we all learned, it’s
good to be Carmen, and best to know her.
Geoffrey/Flossie |
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We
got a chance to play catch up with Ralf Ausländer, Managing Director
for leisure cargo while at Air Cargo Europe 2011 in Munich, and took
the opportunity to ask a few questions about what is most important
to leisure cargo at the moment.
The
reports of air freight’s death are greatly exaggerated
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