Flash Interview of the month | May 2019

Maio, 2019

The Flash Interview of the Month is a very short talk with one of our members, where the interviewed is able to talk about his/her experience in an informal way and where all stories are told in the 1st person. 

This month, get to know Miguel Mota, Air France-KLM Sales Director for Portugal

1. What are the things that make you love your job in a company like KLM? 

What makes me love working at KLM (a Dutch and, definitely, a global brand!)  is a whole set of factors that, put together, create and promote a very positive sense of belonging and accomplishment. I am proud to work with a fantastic international team where a culture of dialogue, mutual respect and support prevails. An amazing team always seeking to grow and excel itself, to represent and embody (i) a portfolio of reputed and global brands such as KLM, AIR FRANCE and DELTA, (ii) a diversity of challenges and opportunities or (ii) a set of standards, values and corporate vision where I highlight the social and environmental concerns.

2. Do you remember any funny situation in your professional life?

When I started dating my wife, I was already working at KLM.  She had a couple of family friends who were KLM frequent flyers since the 1960s. It was very interesting to have a different perspective and testimony from such early travellers and learn something more about KLM’s quite rich and inspiring history. With those friends, I learned more about inflight comfort experienced in previous decades and was able to see actual examples of Comfort Kits from the 70s and 80s’ that they kept at home.

3. How has KLM grown here in Portugal in the last 5 years?

I would like, in the first place, to underline the almost 80 years presence of KLM in Portugal – since April 2nd, 1940, when it inaugurated the route Amsterdam-Porto-Lisbon-Amsterdam – and the curious fact that it was a DC-3 owned by KLM opening the traffic in Humberto Delgado/Portela’s airport in October 15th 1942. Almost eight decades later, KLM – and, in a broader sense, the whole Air France-KLM Group – continues strongly banking for Portugal. In fact, in the last five years (2014-19), KLM experienced an extraordinary increase in offer of 73% (or 484,730 seats in 2019 from 280,526 in 2015), explained, among other factors, by the opening of the popular route between Porto and its hub in Amsterdam-Schiphol (then with a daily flight and to complement the service Lisbon – Amsterdam) on May 15th 2017. Definitely, this is the result of a market firmly committed with its growth and increased competitiveness in global markets, but also of an airline – and a leading air carrier group – always attentive to new opportunities of development in both new and traditional markets. Finally, and just as a facts & figs wrap-up for Portugal in 2018-19, I would like to stress that KLM has transported more than 400,000 passengers between Portugal and the Netherlands in 2018, while the overall group (with its brands AIR FRANCE and KLM) has transported almost 1 million passengers to/from Portugal in the same period – and it is offering almost 1,15 million seats in the market this year.

4. What’s the most exciting thing on the horizon for 2019 ?

First and foremost, I must highlight KLM’s 100th birthday next October 7th – and all the festivities around it in 2019 and 2020. Being the oldest airline in the world operating under the same name and the first air carrier ever to supersede the mark of a three digits of age, this is something that can only makes us all proud and with a sense of duty accomplished when it comes to meeting our customers’ demands and needs throughout a century. Such longevity takes wit, entrepreneurship and a solid sense of connection. I should also stress that, right from the start, we have connected with our customers by putting them first and, in the coming century, starting in 2019, we want to continue setting the standard for the aviation of tomorrow. I would also like to mention (i) the newest 787-10 Dreamliner, a new generation of aircraft that we are receiving next June and one of the first such aircrafts operating in Europe; for sure, (ii) our continuous wage and growth in Portugal, including the amazing challenge of the new offer increase in Porto (with up to 14 weekly flights operated by KLM) and also the transatlantic joint partnership with DELTA; and, definitely, (iii) the continuous collaboration in the market with the Dutch-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce, of which we are a proud founding member (#9) – to same extent, a close relationship responsible for bringing the two countries and visitors (from all over the world and both ways) closer together for more than three decades.