Weapon of Mass Instruction

Airline Information Launches FFP Regional Forum Series in Miami for Latin American

and Caribbean Airlines

The FFP Conference held in Madrid in February brought together loyalty managers from over 65 international airlines, but no airline from the Caribbbean and few airlines from Latin America were represented at the event.  To reach loyalty managers from Latin American & the Caribbean and to draw their attention to the power and profitability of loyalty marketing, Airline Information held the first FFP Regional Loyalty Forum for Latin America & Caribbean on 2 June 2005 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.

The FFP Forum brought together Loyalty and Marketing Managers from 17 airlines based-in Latin America and the Caribbean or with service to those regions.  Non-airline frequent flyer partners working with the regional airlines, including hotels, rental cars and telecommunications companies were also well represented, as were many industry suppliers, including FFP and CRM systems, FFP outsourcing companies and FFP consulting firms.

The message of the FFP Forum was clear- currency-based Frequent Flyer Programs can be a source of profit for airlines in and of themselves, rather than just an expense necessary to match the competition.  With over 85% of the airlines in Latin American and the Caribbean in bankruptcy or technical bankruptcy, this important message resounded well with regional airlines.  This message will continue to resound in the region through two of the Forum´s key sponsors, Aital, the Latin American Airlines Association, and Aviaglobal, Latin America´s most noted aviation publishing firm.

Airline Information's co-founder Roger Williams says: "the interactive group exercises that we did in the FFP Forum, such as our MileBroker exercise, teach airlines to leverage their miles for huge amounts of cash."  Methods have emerged to manage the outstanding mileage liability generated through this leveraging of miles for cash, allowing even the smallest airlines to implement effective and profitable mileage-based frequent flyer programs.  Williams goes on to say: "Airline Information is now beta testing with select airlines a mileage-burner product that reduces an airline´s contingent liability and provides an alternate source of redemption that costs the airline zero.  We plan to unveil the mileage burner product to all airlines at the FFP Conference in Bangkok in early 2006. "

Feedback was excellent from the 65 delegates that attended the FFP Regional Forum in Miami.  Designed by Airline Information to regionally supplement the worldwide FFP Conference, the forum´s interactive format of panels, workshops and group discussions permitted by its small size effectively enabled airlines to quickly increase their knowledge about frequent flyer programs and loyalty marketing.

For more information about the FFP Regional Forum or to request that a Regional FFP Forum be organized in your geographical region, contact Airline Information. admin@airlineinformation.org

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