Ignacio Vallejo: “The projection of losses of Tame rose to $ 20 million.”
Ecuadornews:
He was named president ad honorem of the Tame Board. This Spaniard worked for almost 40 years for Iberia, so his experience has been taken into account to raise this state airline that, at the time, was one of the most attractive for sale.
Excerpt from the Interview to Ignacio Vallejo
Q: After taking up this position, what did you come upon?
A: I have encountered a company that is in a very critical situation, it has red numbers, it has a fictitious fleet of 12 planes, as only the half is used. A fleet that cannot provide scheduled services.
Q: What percentage of the service is covered?
A: We are talking about 60% because of flight cancellations and delays. In the face of this grave situation, meetings have been held with responsible managers of the company and with authorities of the Coordinating Company of Public Companies to build alliances with other airlines that allow us to resume the frequencies.
Q: How many cancellations are reported? How are these impacting sales?
A: We have an average of eight flight cancellations daily, even ten because we do not have enough planes. Sales, these days especially, have decreased by at least 15, 20%. We are not putting up for sale routes that we know will be canceled.
Q: What do balance sheets say? How many losses are reported?
A: Our previous projections were not so high. We were talking about $ 3 million, but today we are projecting losses between 15 and 20 million. We have aircraft maintenance debts, hotel debts (for compensation made to customers), debts with third parties, expenses that were not foreseen.
Q: There is talk of dismissing 400 workers. Is it a fact?
A: Yes, one of them will be the restructuring of the workforce, we have to restructure functions within the company. But we’re not going to dismiss people.
We are analyzing which areas have excess staff, people who are close to retirement and cannot perform tasks that require physical effort, we will see the possibility of outsourcing services. It will be an exhaustive analysis; we do not want to make mistakes or harm workers. (I)
Source: http://www.expreso.ec/