Building confidence and remaining curious: the keys

Dear colleagues,

 

This year we have embarked on a new space called Overfly Latin America and Caribbean to share with distinguished industry professionals the perspectives on the future of aviation in the region and the joint work that industry and government must develop for a hastened recovery.

This first edition I had the pleasure of talking with the ICAO Secretary General elected, Juan Carlos Salazar, who will take office on August 1, 2021, being the first Spanish speaker to take this position in the organization representing the world civil aviation.

Having over 26 years of outstanding trajectory in the industry, Juan Carlos has recent achievements, such as a 60% growth in the number of air transport agreements that Colombia holds, thus enhancing connectivity, in addition to significant improvements in different local and international indexes, positioning the country as a global aviation benchmark.

Within the last 16 years before 2019, Latin American and Caribbean aviation had been growing at a sustained pace, with prospects of growing at a higher rate than the global average within the next 20 years. Now, we face a long road to recovery, where the urgent joint work with governments will be essential for planning the roadmap and providing foreseeability to the industry and confidence to the passengers.

In this line and on the eve of his new professional duties, I asked Juan Carlos 3 questions:

Q: What is the role of Latin American and Caribbean aviation in global aviation?
A: Aviation in Latin America and Caribbean is a necessity. Our region depends heavily on aviation for connectivity, economic and cultural exchange, family, as well as for tourism development, which also has a great deal of potential.
It is one of the fastest growing aviation markets and, in my vision, within the next six years it will be the fastest growing region in terms of air connectivity. We have a great deal of potential and we must bring it to global aviation.

Q: What will be the motto of your leadership and where should we focus as an industry?
A: We must focus on building confidence. For international air transport to recover, it is necessary to build confidence among governments, passengers, and health authorities. To regain ICAO leadership, it is necessary to build confidence within the organization and with the industry, as well as with other international organizations and stakeholders.
I think that only on the basis of building confidence we will able to work on the real mission that we have in the next six years, which is to re-imagine air transport, how we are going to reinvent this industry so that it is viable and resilient in the new circumstances that the world witnesses, as it has been historically.

Q: What do you consider was the determining factor in your career to reach this important position that will impact the future of aviation?
A: I consider that curiosity has been a determining factor in my career. Initially the curiosity to understand how the air transport business worked, when I was working with a cargo airline; later to understand how it is regulated worldwide along with the technical aspects of this industry, when I was studying a master’s degree in aviation and space law in Canada; and the permanent curiosity to learn about other cultures, to improve the regulatory framework so that the industry develops increasingly faster. This is an industry where we get to know very interesting countries and people, where we learn about technologies and so many other things where being curious is an indispensable trait.

Passengers today have new expectations and needs when traveling, and it is urgent a coordinated effort to implement new harmonized standards that allow aviation to continue the path to reach its great potential and provide more options to users, as well generate benefits to our countries. I take away from this conversation two keys: to build confidence and, undoubtedly, to always remain curious to keep learning. As Albert Einstein said: ” I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Thank you for reading and I hope you have enjoyed this space. Comments are always welcome.

Until the next flight,
José Ricardo Botelho