Gemma Juncá: "Iberia supports tourism recovery as a lever for the country's recovery"

In the special programme broadcast by Atalayar from the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR), in collaboration with Europea Media, Aviación Digital and the International Press Club, we had the intervention of Gemma Juncá Rodríguez, Iberia's Brand&Marketing Director, who analysed the airline's commercial strategies in 2022. On the other hand, Iberia's Brand&Marketing Director spoke about flight safety and the trend of customers who want to travel again and continue living experiences. 

Iberia presents itself at FITUR with a journey through the airline's history through its uniforms.

The Iberia stand at FITUR 2022 opens with the new 2022 uniforms designed by Teresa Helbig, who is the first woman to design an Iberia uniform. We have always been linked to Spanish design, to those great cultural designers that Spain has always had and exported to the world, with uniforms by Pertegaz, Elio Berhanyer, etc., always linked to Spanish design and creative talent, but they had never been designed by a woman, and for the first time a woman has designed a wonderful uniform, which we presented two years ago, before the pandemic, but which will finally be in the air on 1 June this year. 

This summer, when tourism will start to evolve in a positive way, Iberia is launching a new uniform. A fantastic combination, when you buy a plane ticket you expect a series of added values such as safety, comfort and a quality of service that an airline like Iberia has. 

With all these things you point out, what you achieve is to make that small difference that makes a customer repeat. In a way, it is true that the uniform is a symbol of renewal, renewing on the outside to change on the inside, to change the travellers' experience. We are not changing the uniform just because it's convenient, but because as of 1 June our customers will be able to live a much more personalised experience, today it is true that technology allows us to personalise the experiences we have with the brands more and more. From 1 June we have a new customer experience model in which we have improved the gastronomic offer, we are going to have even better food, even tastier, based on the essence of the Spanish product, we have a fantastic product and a fantastic wealth and that is what we are flying with all the guarantees within what the pandemic is allowing us to do. In addition to the gastronomic proposal, we are going to have wifi, what we call free messages, from 1 July, for business customers and all those who are Iberia Plus customers, and then the personalisation I was referring to is going to come from digitalisation, a customer is going to choose what they want to eat, which allows us to carry less food, therefore, we will waste less and this will lead us to greater sustainability. Sustainability is not just about fuel type or pollution but about many small details in the experience that makes it more sustainable. So we go back to the beginning, we change on the outside so we can change on the inside.

There are many people who are still a little reluctant to take a flight nowadays with the pandemic, is it safe to fly?

In the two years that we have been living with COVID-19, we have not heard any news about outbreaks of infection on an aeroplane because safety is essential for all airlines. Before the pandemic, we understood safety to mean in-flight safety and that everything works, and now we have added the aspect of the non-contagion of the Sars COV-2 virus. We have been talking about this for two years, our planes have filters that renew the air, they filter 99.78% of the particles, they are the same filters that hospitals have in operating theatres, the air currents are individual, the air goes from top to bottom, it enters and exits again. The crew is trained with a special protocol against COVID-19, they are especially careful with the use of masks and gloves so it is true that the experience of flying has become a little more complicated, now we need a PCR or the European vaccination certificate, to be aware of the requirements for entry to the country we are visiting, but the experience of flying is one of the safest we can have outside our security environment. 

The COVID passport allows a certain amount of trust to exist, a traveller knows that the person next to you is also vaccinated, therefore, the possibility of contagion is greatly reduced. 

Totally, we have all spent a year and a half in which we have been confined, we have not been able to leave the house much, we have had to do a lot of online shopping, but we have had to buy material and there has come a time in 2022 when what we really miss is to live experiences such as flying, travelling, going to a concert or a football match. The pandemic has highlighted the fact that material things are all very well, but in the end, what you take with you is what you live. Lately we have noticed a demand, as soon as this wave is under control, that the customer wants to travel again, and wants to live and experience, and Iberia's role in all of this is that we help tourists to do so in the safest way possible. 

In the case of Iberia, where are you noticing the demand is soaring the most?

Logically, the demand now is more of a holiday segment, the corporate segment still has to return to work in the offices, although there are business travellers who still continue to travel, so we are seeing a contained demand that as soon as the restrictions are relaxed and the rate of contagion relaxes, they want to travel. It is true that we see demand for long and medium haul and domestic flights, in November when the United States opened its borders, tourism was a boom in demand, in December it was practically impossible to find a ticket because that demand is latent because of what I said before, what we want is to live.

This Christmas I imagine that family flights will come out on top...

Family flights and flights of reunion. It is true that Christmas is a time of reunion and we used to say that this was the Christmas of hugs. Last year, when you went to T-4, travellers left alone, just with their suitcases, and it was a bit disheartening. This year, the pandemic improved and the security measures meant that people were able to welcome their loved ones back, so when in mid-December you saw those hugs again in the arrivals terminal, it was very emotional. At Christmas it is true that, in terms of air traffic, we have recovered quite a lot, we are not yet at pre-COVID-19 levels and it is going to take some time, but we realise that there is a sustained growth and above all that we have to live with the pandemic, so the use of the mask is assumed as part of normality and we try to make it as easy as possible for you to carry all the medical documents in the app so that everything is simpler and above all, so that the experience is without you having to touch anything, so that everything is in the app and is as fluid as possible.

All sectors of society are looking at the Next Generation recovery funds. Is a company like Iberia receiving the aid it needs? 

I can't answer that because as director of Brand&Marketing it's not my specialisation, but what we have been committed to at Iberia is maintaining connectivity throughout the pandemic and maintaining the maximum level of flights allowed by the social, health and economic situation. Right now we are committed to revitalising the tourism sector, Iberia belongs to the IAG group, the IAG group is in sound financial health, and our role is to support the recovery of tourism as a fundamental lever for the country's recovery, with Madrid as a hub to connect Europe and Asia with Latin America. 

This year's FITUR slogan is very apt, "let's embrace the future", so let's embrace dreams and the dream of flying with Iberia. We must have a society that promotes companies that provide a good service at a cost that is appropriate to the quality of the service.

The entire Iberia team does its utmost every day to ensure that the experience is so good that we gain the trust of our customers, which is the most complicated thing in the world.