IR Open Mic - 26-02 - Full Interview with Juan Jose Salmon (Season 1, Episode 5)

Welcome to Open Mic, the airport- and aviation-focused podcast hosted by Curtis Grad, Chief Executive and Founding Partner of Modalis Infrastructure Partners. Each episode features in-depth conversations with global aviation leaders—airport executives, investors, innovators, and policy experts—exploring the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the airport and aviation landscape.

In this episode, Curtis speaks with Juan José Salmón, Chief Executive Officer of Lima Airport Partners (LAP), the private operator and developer of Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Peru. Together, Curtis and Juan José explore the extraordinary journey behind the airport’s new terminal and the broader role of private sector investment in transforming aviation infrastructure across Latin America.

They dive into:
✈️ The multi-year effort to plan, design, and deliver Lima’s new airport terminal—including navigating COVID-19 disruptions and redesigning the project mid-stream.
🏗️ The operational challenge of closing the old airport and moving an entire operation—including aircraft, equipment, and personnel—to a new terminal in less than 24 hours.
📈 The remarkable growth story of Lima Airport, expanding from just a few million passengers at the start of the concession to nearly 26 million today.
🌎 Why Latin America has become the most privatized airport region in the world—and what that means for infrastructure investment and connectivity.
🚀 The future of aviation in the region, including open skies, increased connectivity, and emerging airport technologies.

Timestamps:
1:25  The story behind Lima’s new airport terminal
3:00  The operational challenge of moving an airport in 24 hours
8:50  Lima Airport’s extraordinary passenger growth
11:14  Public vs private airport management models
14:20  From maritime logistics to aviation leadership
21:48  Crazy aviation story: shutting down the airport during COVID
27:53  The future of aviation connectivity in Latin America
34:37  Magic Mirror: Rapid-fire questions with Juan José

🎧 Tune in for insider perspectives from airport and aviation thought leaders.
🔔 Subscribe for future episodes.
💬 Like and Comment: What lessons can other regions learn from Latin America’s airport privatization model?

🌐 Visit https://airportir.com/open-mic to hear more episodes and stay informed about the global aviation developments that matter to you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to Open Mic from Modales Infrastructure Partners, where aviation talks and the world listens. From global airport and aviation developments to disruptive technology, airport investment, and much more, we unpack the trends, technologies, challenges, and opportunities shaping the global aviation industry. Now here's your host, Curtis Grad.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Airport IR Open Mic Podcast by Modales. I'm very pleased to welcome today's guest, Juan José Salmon, Chief Executive Officer for Lima Airport Partners, better known as LAP, the private sector operator and developer of the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. Juan José, welcome.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Hello, Curtis. How are you doing? Great to be here in your in your podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Well, thanks for taking the time and looking forward to having a bit of fun over the next uh 40 to 50 minutes. So let's start with what has been undoubtedly uh a multi-year preoccupation for you and your team, the completion of the new terminal. I guess that was officially opened on June 1st of last year. Curious to know what the greatest challenges were, some of the tribulations, and ultimately the triumph of opening the building. We had the chance to get a good look at it a while back, but curious to hear how you how you got through all that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Yeah, it was a complete adventure, I have to say. Uh really, we started a project back in 2018 with all the planning, etc., because by that time we already knew that the government was finally going to deliver the lands to us after about 15 years in 2019. So we start planning, looking for the best designs. Traffic looked great, uh, projections look even better. So we hired companies, we started doing all the strategies for packaging and start working, and then COVID came. So we had to go back to the to the to the design world. We need to take very hard decisions how to resize the terminal because, as you know, traffic just dropped and it was very difficult to predict what was going to come in the future. Everybody was in a panic. Like, like, is it gonna come back? What you know, what's the world look like afterwards exactly? Yeah, and you know, I think what's it should have been one of the first projects, among with any more, I guess, in the world, but in Peru, in which we immediately changed from uh presential and then in the office with all the architects, all the specialists, and then all of a sudden working abroad using Teams, using Zoom. It was it was it was quite a nightmare, but I was really gladly surprised that without knowing it, we were we were really prepared. So that was, let's say, the first steps of this project. We need to change the design. Then we went to this proposal to the government to change it, not going to one single terminal, but to two terminals. You have been here, you have seen what is called the old terminal, so to say, which is still a perfect building, functioning building. But for a very odd reason, the government decided that we shall abandon the old building and build a new one. And that is what we did. And challenges have been first of all, the last big airport being built in Peru was the Jorge Chavez in back in 1968. So there were no procedures, no processes regarding uh the DJC uh authorities, you know, building an airport is a different kind of animal, it's not building just a shopping mall, it has a lot of systems security, it's a lot of integration to do. So we had to work with almost every single authority in the country in Lima and Callao to build up processes to convince them that this project had to go into a fast-track mode, which was also something new for this kind of project. Luckily, we got the support of our main sponsors, let's say, in Peru. They accepted it. And then we moved forward. It has been quite quite an adventure dealing with authorities, dealing with airlines, dealing with all the stakeholders. We had a lot to do, a lot of positive and also negative problems comment that we needed to take out because you know, in the the capital airport, it always creates this kind of uh sensation of property. Everyone owns the airport, no, especially, but if something goes wrong, then the airport operator is the owner.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But but yeah, there's very selective memory there. So and there's no there's no institutional memory. That's the other thing that when you get to a big project like that within the government and even within your own team, like from the beginning of the concession until this major construction, so you're almost starting from scratch, not just procedures, but just the mentality of what it takes to pull that all together. And and nobody really even thinks about the ORAT side of things, but opening that new terminal is is a challenge, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah, and I was going to mention that we we have a very well-organized Aura team. We had the full support from our MA company, which is Fraport. So we developed everything, but as you know, in this kind of construction fast track, not all the things occur in the pace and in the order they were supposed to. There were some delays on work, some equipment that didn't arrive on time. So we needed to adapt constantly in order to put it on operation. And as you know, Curtis, at the end, we managed to close entirely the old airport by uh May 31st, 24 hours. We close the old airport, and then we have a window of 12 hours where we move all the operations to the new one. We move more than 50 planes, all the all the all the vehicles, equipment, personnel, and in less than eight hours, because we opened the new the new airport by I think around 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. in the morning for passengers to start to be able to arrive to the new infrastructure. And then the first flight went out around midday or 1 p.m. So it was really, really an amazing sensation. It was a mixed sensation, you know, because we were uh leaving behind an old but very functional airport, we need to close it, and then receiving the new one with all the challenges, and we did it.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

And it's literally the new terminal, the new terminal is literally on the other side of the airport. So yeah, getting getting passengers to understand where to go, and even that, the logistics are quite challenging, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:15

The logistics and the communication for the people to understand where they need to go, at what time they needed to arrive. But nevertheless, despite the fact that we did a lot of communication efforts, we had people, first of all, families going to the New Airport just to go and see what it looks like. Then we had a lot of passengers that their flight was like at 24 hours the day of the opening, and they were arriving at 8 a.m. Because there was this start sort of everyone was freaking out that things were not going to. So we had a lot, a lot of people around. But I'm very glad and very proud about lab team because everyone really put their yellow best to help and support. And I mean everyone, courtesies from accounting administration, legal, uh commercial, everyone was there trying to help passengers with a flow because theirport was completely different kind of uh wayfinding. It was a small one, only two floors. This one is like four, five floors with a typical you know access road, which is in a bridge for the elevator road to go into the check-in area. Completely the new airport for the people that are listening to us is three times bigger than the old one. Yeah, and we put it in under operation in only 24 hours. It was really incredible.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Well, I was gonna say, and you know, we've all been through some of these ORATs before, these operational readiness procedures, but it's always the debate do you do a big bang or do you do it progressively? Like in we were we were involved in the ORAT and the opening in Panama City, and for a variety of reasons, we did the progressive opening. But you know, you don't have to get everything perfect when you're doing one or two gates at a time. But when you move an entire operation from one side of the airport to the other and you switch the lights off and go to the other side and turn them on, it it's a much higher risk proposition for sure, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:01

No, sure, but but again, at the end we managed to get the support from the government that was very, very important. Of course, all the training and and previous drills that we made with the team, because as you mentioned, there is a time where there is the no back, the no going back time. I don't know how to say in English, yeah, but you just shut the old airport, and then you have to go all in and do whatever it takes to make that new airport functioning, receiving passengers, processing passengers, bats, everything, and the first flight going out, it was really an amazing, amazing experience.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

It's like jumping out of an airplane with a parachute. You once you jump out, you're not coming back, right? So yeah, everything, everything has to work perfectly for sure. Exactly. Now you've you've been there almost 15 years in Lima, I guess. And so you you've seen a lot. You know, it's been quite a ride. Like I guess it was back around 2011 that you joined, and the airport was what, 12 million passengers, something like that. And now you're you're pushing close to 26 million. It's been an amazing growth story, but but you started out in Fraport's gamble there was um it was gonna grow, but I'm sure even the the fraport executives never dreamed that they'd be looking at 26 million passengers, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Yeah, that is that is correct. When we took over the concession back in 2001, I think we have about four million passengers. And and and and at that time, the projection for the end of the concession that at that time was in 2031, was to reach no more than 10. So the growth has been the growth has been really, really amazing, as you have just mentioned. Yeah, in and also something very peculiar in this in Peru is that since 20 uh 2011, when I went into the airport up until now, we have had like nine presidents, so almost one president per year. And that creates a the and that creates a different challenge. And why I'm mentioning this, because with this regard, with all this political turmoil or I don't know how to say really, complex situation that we are living in the last decade, the economy has been growing amazingly. You know, the economy there were times back in 20 uh, 2019 where the economy was growing about 6% a year. The average has been like four. The last three years we have been growing like 3.3, 3.4%. So that has created a necessary base for the for more passengers coming to Lima, more people being able to access to air travel. There have been new airlines, new uh destinations. So generally speaking, the the process has been extremely successful. And of course, there was a lot of challenges running an airport which was not designed for that amount of passengers because up until the opening, the old airport was for about uh 16 or 14 million passengers. We and we were managing like 24, 25. Oh, exactly. There have been a lot of effort also trying to cope with that extremely aggressive traffic growth and providing the right level of service for for the passenger for the airlines and to try to meet our concession obligations as much as we could.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

And it's an interesting, it's an interesting case study, and actually on an advisor we're doing right now is one of the case studies we're looking at because in the more developed countries like in Canada and the US and Europe, they're the countries that are considering concessioning airports, they start wringing their hands. Well, how do we know that the private sector is going to deliver? And and then in these countries that have more of a volatile political mix, well, you know, will it will the private investors invest because it's unstable? Well, you know, Lima kind of answers all of those questions that you've gone through all the political turmoil, you've quadrupled in traffic or even more almost five times, and the private capital has stuck with it. Uh it it's a proven model. I guess the question we can ask, but we'll never answer, is what would what would Lima be today if it was still a government-owned and operated airport? But you know, you you can't answer the question.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

But come on, we can we we can go there for ages, but what I can tell you, you see the state in which the still state-owned airports are being run is really really bad, let's say, to say the least, no. They are not investing in new technology, they are not investing in renovating the the premises. So that is that is really that is really a shame because at the end, I think at the end, I think what matters is to provide the right level of service to passengers and to airlines to create growth, and you create growth only by investing the right amount of capital into the asset, of course, because because you you you also uh are expecting a return of revenue, and that is for both sides, no, uh government or uh or a private entity. But unfortunately, here the estate owner are not in good shape, not even terminal runway. So I would say these airports, if they wouldn't have given it to concession, it would be in a very, very terrible condition. And of course, and traffic will be much lower.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, and you look at you look at examples of um like Panama's example, it's still run by the state, by a state-owned company, but it's really it's it's growth and innovation um and response to the markets being driven by a single carrier by COPA. But that that's probably the exception. But in places like Canada, like of course, we always have to do things a little bit unusual. Um so we've got this not-for-profit corporation, and by and large, over the last 25-30 years, it's delivered improved facilities, but not really the private sector um intensity to grow, develop, and and and be everything that it can be. It's it's not government-owned, it's a it's a it's almost like a concession to a not-for-profit corporation. So they have a commercial, they have a commercial focus, but they're missing that that that hunger of a private sector company to not just m maximize profit, but meet the market needs. And I think part of the work that we do is is trying to get, particularly in Canada, people looking at outside their fence to see how things are being operated, and not south of the border, because the US is even worse than Canada when it comes to uh private sector participation. So hopefully we can all live long enough to see those two countries do some privatizing. Now, I want to turn the clock back a little bit. You started your career in the maritime law and you turned your hand into managing sea and land logistics, marine terminals, things like that. Maybe that's why you and I and Carlos get along so well, because um Carlos Element, one of our partners, is also he's got that marine uh terminal background. But what led you to the aviation sector and what are the sort of common denominators you feel you've seen between the two? And you know, what's what's similar and maybe what are the differences?

SPEAKER_03 14:45

What drove me into the uh into this sector, it was just uh things that happened. I was I was very, very happy ever living in the in the markham sector. I knew everyone, I was working for in that sector for more than 12 or 15 years. I also had some good relationship with all the entities. I was the president of an institution, also with all the shipping lines going to Peru. So I knew everyone, I wasn't really, really on my comfort zone. I was really in my comfort zone. And then out of the blue, it came this proposition to work in the airport. It came through uh through a headhunter. I didn't knew anything about airports, I was more or less aware of the challenges because you know the airport is located in Callao, the main port of Peru is Callao, so I knew more or less what was going on in the area in terms of logistics. So I had a couple of interviews. I I really like the challenges. I am someone that really liked the challenges and to put all the best effort to do things, um, or do a guy and very hands-on. So I decided to jump from the ship and going into an airplane without knowing anything about the sector. And ever since it has been quite a quite an adventure knowing every day I'm learning about this industry. I have been very lucky, I have to say, with the different managers at board memory that I have had, because they had the patience to sometimes explain me the ABC. But here we are, and and and and and I would say the main there there are there are a lot of similarities. Um first of all, that you you need to be aware that every movement means a cost. So you have to be very, very efficient on how you move things, how long you move them, how fast that one product goes from one side to the other. And this also goes for passengers. I'm I'm not saying that passengers are good, but they are moving around the airport, they are expanding, they are they are they are using different structures. You need to be very efficient to provide the right level of service. That is something very common. Something that is almost obvious, and it was the main difference. I was in the shipping sector, but I was in the container business sector. Okay. So therefore, it was completely inanimated things. It was more onto the onto the B2B, not into the B2C side. So one thing that really struck me at the beginning was how many complaints and how much people have to say about the airport services, etc. Containers, you know, something happens in the port, you just deal with the port authority or with a shipping line or with the agency, you solve it among a very reduced number of persons, and then you go, if something happens in the airport, is I completely stakeholders in an airport is is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

And I guess it's crazy. Container can containers don't complain, right? Yeah. Um my wife spent a lot of time in the uh in the hotel industry, and so I got to know a lot of hotel managers, and they would say, Well, because they're kind of a different breed, though, the hotel managers, right? And they would say, Um, so tell me, Curtis, what's it like to manage an airport? And I said, Well, imagine you had a hotel and you you were you were managing it, but you had a bunch of federal agencies in there that did whatever they wanted, and you you couldn't tell them what to do, and and your customer service was really tied to how they perform. And oh, by the way, there's a bunch of independent airlines or or companies that are that are also saying that your customers are their customers and and don't tell me what to do. That's a little bit about what an airport looks like, uh, if you were to compare it to hotel, and you could see them in their eyes, they're like, oh my God, I will never I will never touch an airport. They they like to to manage their own domain, but in in airports, they're you're like the mayor of a small town and nobody's ever happy, right?

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Yeah, yeah. I was going to say that like being a mayor, and and with this experience of building an airport where none other big airport has been built before, it was really, really something convincing some of the authorities that you need to have, for example, retail in the airport because it's a command. You cannot have retail, it's an airport. Those that were the kind of discussion that we had with some authorities. Luckily, they do understand and then they they fully support us. But the first, the first view was okay, guys, I I want to see the manual, how to build an airport, what the process said, and there were processes which are completely outdated. Okay, here it says only only airport activity, so retail is not an airport activity, and this is just an example. This is just an example, of course. At the beginning, it it kind of struck you like someone slapping to your face, but then you had to have the patience to explain, and then they do understand very fast and they do collaborate. But to that kind of level of detail, we had to go to be able to have these infrastructure running.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yeah, and these first generation airport concessions, you know, whether it's Lima and like my my experience, Jamaica, Cyprus, Jordan, these were the first big uh concessions in the country, period. But you know, the first and only airports, and the idea that that first of all you're going to give up your sovereignty and let these foreigners come in and run the airport, and God forbid they should do it better than locals. That that was never our point. Our point was to come in and help develop the the local team as well. And I think it's part of the art of concessioning is get your feet in the ground, get the new business and the new building up and running, but find find the right local talent to keep it keep it going, because you can't survive on expat executives indefinitely, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Yeah, it's part of my of my personal frustration here in Peru because you mentioned we have a lot of expats with a lot of know-how being brought to the to the country in all aspects, in all the sectors, in all the systems that you can imagine from the airport. And I was never able to convince the government to capture that know-how for their own airports. So to understand, okay, you know, openly signing an NDA, you know, guys, lab, we have this problem with this airport. How can we solve them? What are your ideas? No, that that was something impossible to do. So now all these experts, guys, most of them they have gone already because we are already in the in the in the closing phase of the EPC contract. And all the know-how for there is there is a lot of young engineers that have worked in the airport, they have learned a lot, because young Peruvian engineers, female and male, that has worked with us, that have learned a lot, that have that are now much more experienced in in challenging and mega projects. But it was impossible to pass on that know-how to the state entities. And that is really a shame.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Yeah. Well, that was one of the things that Elizabeth Brown and I spoke about. Uh, she had spent seven and a half years in Montego Bay. And you look at you look at that senior team now, they're all from the original team. They're all the original Jamaican team that were junior managers at the time, like Shane, who's the CEO, was uh the head of IT, second in charge of security, a guy named Peter Hall is now COO. And even the fire chief has come up through through the ranks. It's also on how the government sets up the concession that you know they they they want to see that happen, and and that and that's the best success story. But it doesn't always work everywhere, that's for sure. Yeah. So um we have a sort of tradition in in this open mic podcast of uh crazy stories, and I'm sure you've got plenty of them, but maybe you can share one or two of the craziest stories you've had, whether it's at Lima Airport or elsewhere, but we'd love to to hear what's what's kept you in.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

used for me COVID was was something really really that that really really struck my mind you know I was also coming from the logistics sector where everything is movement activity uh 24-7 operations and then all of a sudden uh having to shut down the airport I clearly remember the last passenger that we had to take out of our premises because all of the local regulations and restrictions that we had and then literally closing the gates putting a lock and then sitting down and looking back all the team of luck which has been very supportive and almost like saying okay and and what now what is going to happen where are we going to go what are we going to do shall we stay here working on a standby basis shall we go home that was that was really that was really challenging um we also had some some other stories some time ago we organized one of these uh pan American games which is like a small Olympics in the in the region in the in the full americas so there was a lot of logistics the logistics also have having to be planned at one time I remember there was there was coming a very special plane with very special horses and I can tell you those the value of those horses were in the tens of the millions so you cannot imagine the amount of security and and care that we need to put around those cargo planes in and not to miss anything because if something went wrong it will be really really cute especially they were from a very very famous and reputable rich one in the world and the horses are high strong and they're stressed and yeah oof oof oof oof oof it was it was it was very challenging for the team but again if I would have to choose one Curtis I will say COVID.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

COVID was okay i clear I clearly remember being sitting in my in my office on uh March the 12th when everything was has had to run and you know news started to come very fast my son was even in the States luckily my wife managed to convince me to bring him just the 14 he was expected to stay there longer yeah yeah yeah so luckily luckily I listened to to her and and I and and and I always do uh sure you do I believe you and I and then and then he came to Lima on the 14 otherwise he will be stuck in the state for months a year that would be a nightmare yeah well the the word surreal was overused but that was definitely a surreal sort of experience and i i remember i remember watching the news on march 13th of 2020 and it was a US NBA basketball game and they shut down the game in the middle of the game and I looked at my wife and I said oh man for the Americans to shut down a professional game of any sort there's something serious going on and then then all the feet started to drop the the next few days so but you you think about it that you know the the surreal part was not hearing an airplane in the sky for so many so many days it was kind of like after 9-11 like during 9-11 like when all those aircraft got grounded in North America you couldn't hear an airplane it was like again it was a little unsettling because you you know in our in our modern history you've never had that or not even seeing a contrail through the sky or if you did see one you're like well man what's that all about right so I guess we got to know each other through the the conferencing and whether it was GAD conferences the global development but I think it was mostly ACI and I think you're now the standing chair of ACI Latin America correct that's correct sir.

SPEAKER_03 25:38

Okay and you've got a little little gathering coming together that's the I guess it's a co-host that's both the the Latin American conference and the world conference at the same time right that's right that's going to happen Curtis on September this year 2026.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Was that the one in Toronto last year that because it was co-hosted with North America it was very sort of US Canada focused but much much more interesting to to talk about the sort of private sector airports and what's going on in Latin America because when you look at a map there's very few countries now that that don't have private sector participation and it's now the the most privatized airport region in the in the world by passengers it's like 81 82 percent especially with Brazil coming on board so should be an interesting program. Any any thoughts or discussions already on what's in store in terms of guests and special events?

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah I think it's way it's too early where we we are in the process of finalizing the agenda but we are really going to to talk about of course the influence of the private sector in airports because as you clearly mentioned Latin America is one of those examples we are also going very fast into this full liberalization of the of the airspace within Latin America so all liberties I think that we need to create the level of competition to have more air carriers and and airlines going back and forth. We are like 440 million habitants in Latin America most of us speak Spanish we are very near we are like three four five hours away one from each other I believe that we can have much more connectivity with many more airlines connecting among ourselves than the one that we have right now.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

We are also going to use the opportunity to showcase some of the technology that we have implemented in the in the airport like the uh virtual Apron control that we have which is one of the first in in Latin America so it's going to be a little bit of everything we are also trying to have a joint meeting with the ICEO and a clack here in Lima okay good so so we want to have a very good and consistent program and of course enjoying Lima enjoying food enjoying good restaurants enjoying friends like you and many others that will come here so we are really looking forward to to see you all in yeah on that that airspace piece are you are you talking about something like they're doing in Europe with these functional airspace blocks where they actually control multiple countries get together or is it still country by country?

SPEAKER_03 28:10

It's still country by country what we are trying to do is to have common liberties within all the countries without limitation. You know right now we are still in a state of the bilaterals so whenever a bilateral and a specific number of routes which is limiting really because anyone that would like to have their plane running into an airport because there is an opportunity there that is impossible to do because you need to go through all these processes so we want to have just a clear open spice open sky sorry where every anyone that is willing to put their plane and their assets of risk and willing to do commercial activities within a concept then they have to come and do it. The only requisite will be security and safety having the right slot and the right connectivity and that's it. But open skies I think will be a way of promoting and creating more connectivity within us as a region.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

So that is something that we are also working locally with a local DGC which is already looking into that possibility the possibility of having these blocks of common of common air control I think is far too far away in time yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure well it it'll be an interesting part of the conversation at the ACI conference so I look forward to that I'll definitely be there and on that note we we really did enjoy that to visit last fall it was again it was a joint Kappa GAT event we did a bit of a workshop on the wings of that that was Carlos and myself but as we said earlier you were kind enough to give us a tour of the new terminal and got to to get caught up again with Bill Fullerton I guess he was a key part of your finishing the new terminal and getting it open and he and I worked together in Jordan back in the day and uh so he was a familiar face. I hadn't actually expected to see him there I'd forgot that he had he'd been working with you guys.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Yeah he'd been working for us for already about three years more or less almost three years he has been a great asset for us you know he's very much experienced in delivering airports and he has done really a terrific job and it was really great also to see you back when was that you were in Lima four months five months ago that was that was September yeah late September.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

So yeah and I guess since then Bill has uh taken on a new role now that the the big work's done in Lima and he's it's not quite as exotic but now he's he's moved into Toronto which is great there's a there's a huge they call it the lift program it's a big uh multi-billion dollar capital program so nobody better suited than him to to jump in there and and roll the sleeves up so look forward to seeing him in Toronto soon.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

Sure absolutely I think Dilly's the right person for that mega project uh he's suffering a little because he has gone from the warm Lima to the very cold cold cold Toronto week yeah he got a shot he got a shot of heavy snow about three weeks ago it was it was bad you know talking about that visit back last September um not only did you give us the tour but we we had a nice meal together and one thing that sort of stuck out in my memory is this nice plate of uh appetizers came and it was it looked like some sort of braised pork I wasn't quite sure so I I asked and the lady said something very quickly again and I said sorry say again and I think I'll try the pronunciation here Kui cuchado she said guinea pig but it was quite tasty I enjoyed it yeah it was this it's very good it was a it it was a very good restaurant I have to say it's not because because I I invited you but it was really really good thank you and they they have this uh some sort of high end cuisine where they have taken this as you mentioned the guinea pig which we call it here kuy they prepare it somehow different like the one that you're going to find in the Andean region in the Andean region is also very good but you will find there the full animal being roasted so in terms of uh presentation it's not that nice it's very tasty though but it's not that nice where we went I think they serve it like a small crackers like with uh with this uh very crunchy uh skin a little bit of fat and then the meat which was is very very it has a lot of flavor really and they prepare with some sort of uh I think it was some sort of kind of mix of Peruvian and Japanese kind of uh it was kind of a fusion though the whole the whole menu was quite fusion and I I I do remember it almost looking and tasting like a pate so it was it was memorable um so uh I think everybody that's coming for the visit better come with an adventurous spirit when it comes to cuisine if it is very much uh cooked in uh in the Andean region where they breed these uh quois in the houses for for their day-to-day uh um meat provision so it's very very traditional in Peru and again this uh high end restaurant has taken those those kind of uh flavors and and elements they have transformed a little bit and it's a very nice way of going into the traditional food in Peru.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

For sure and the other thing that struck me was our server I believe was indigenous as well and so the there was some authenticity there as well right yeah yeah yeah no it's great and they they they they are really having I have to say excellent services most of the service and waitress there in this kind of restaurant they do speak fluent English and maybe some other language they're very well trained they are very proud of what what they are doing as you know Peruvian Kucin is one of our entry points and ambassador towards the world so that is very very important for us to take care of that and people like you to enjoy it is making us very proud yeah well it's interesting and with all the travel we do I you know I find that English is being more widely spoken and the younger generation no matter where you go seems to have a stronger command of English than than people 20 30 years older. And I one of the we were in Ireland for a conference a few years back and this young gal was serving us and I said you're very far from home she had a very American accent she said yes I am very far from home but not where you think it was it was an absolute American accent right and she said I said so where are you from she said Slovakia and so I looked at her Slovakia she goes she just smiled she said Disney Channel I grew up watching Disney Channel but I I have an American accent so you know that and social media and whatever it else the American and sort of North American accent seems to be everywhere now but uh not not sure that's necessarily a good thing but it it does help with business anyway it's easier to communicate for us poor guy poor guys like me that only speak one language right uh Wanna say we're coming to the end of this and this is the the fun and frivolous part we've got something called the magic mirror. The mirror part is the mirror on your soul so we're gonna ask you 15 questions. They're meant to be fast furious off the top of your head no hesitation no filter but of course no no profanity either so this is a family show. We'll start with uh favorite favorite aircraft civilian or military current or historical civilian current 321 XLR that is the best airport that we can have flying out from Lima because with that we will reach the full American state I'm really looking forward to have a lot of them no no that's a great air that's a great airplane apples oranges coffee or tea flat or sparkling that's just kind of a three parter so apples or oranges I would say apples like crunchy crunchy sensation coffee for sure I start with a very nice espresso and then continue with espresso and go to bed with an espresso so I like coffee. Yeah I'd have nightmares if I did that flat or sparkling I would say sparkling okay good well that was consistent on our dinner that night too on the on the preference theme cats or dogs?

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Cats for sure no sorry dogs for sure there's a hesitation there okay scariest animal spiders yeah yeah some of those can be nasty i don't I don't know why you'd live in Australia there's too many things there that can kill you and I'm going to Australia to visit my son he's living there and he's keep on sending me pictures of very nasty and big spiders all over so I don't know when when to do a wrong when the when the spiders are bigger than your guinea pigs in Peru that that tells you something right so for sure here's here's uh here's one I love to ask famous person living or dead you'd like to have dinner with uh I'm actually reading a book of him is uh José Saramau he's a Portuguese author he's uh he won a Nobel Prize some time ago and he has extraordinary novels and the the subjects and the topics that he chose to present to sometimes people in these race but you can also take them back to what is happening here from a social point of view it's amazing it's really incredible.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

I don't know if you're a car guy but what about uh your favorite classic car I would say uh Mustang Shelby one of the old ones or one of the new one of the you know the old ones the old ones no the you know the new car with all those touch screens and yeah no buttons no no gear no gearbox I I I really they look very nice but they are not that nice to drive you might you might as well be driving a Tesla right so yeah yeah okay greatest fear not being here for my for my children yeah that's a natural one right so well let's live a good life and not be such crazy people like our parents I know my my father lived a tougher life than I did so maybe if we live right we we live longer too right yeah that's correct my favorite dessert it's a Peruvian uh which is um uh I know is I know how to say in English our our editor's wife is is Mexican so she'll help him with the translation we're we're good right great uh earliest memory Sunday breakfast with my grandfather well and he used to take you to a nice restaurant somewhere or no no no no he was always coming home uh Sunday's morning like 6 a.m in the morning he's he parked his car outside a house and he came with warm bread ham and some other peruvian stuff and he was waiting there uh with reading his newspaper and from that time I learned to woke up every Sunday very early because I was the one opening the door to him it was really nice nice memories yeah it's always nice when he comes with goodies in hand that's great yeah yeah sure sure yeah that's right now to the modern age most used app on your phone excluding WhatsApp or Outlook I'm using a lot of X not because I like this hate kind of news but because I also found very interesting articles and and and and very actual news going around so I I am always looking what's happening. Okay. It's like having the full world on your fingers there's some great apps out there now too that that rather than filtering the news they'll give you the the sort of give you the range like it they give you five different articles in the same issue from left center and middle perspective and and they're they're quite good because then you can consume and and see what everybody's seeing and thinking across the spectrum as well. So yeah. Okay favorite movie of all time Dead Boy Society okay I like that yeah that's great yeah it's great and if you had one song to listen to for the rest of your life and there was only one and that this is again a very tricky one but what would it be? There is one from the Beatles which is called a little help conference exactly that's almost like uh words for life as well so yeah yeah that's a good one yeah that's a good one so you know there you know that you cannot do things alone so this is the other impossible question I'm asked and actually one person has got it right in the first four podcasts which is almost unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

What number am I thinking of between one and a hundred and it has some relevance to what we talked about in this interview I would say 25 oh now we're on to number two you're right you got it 25 million passengers well done well done okay getting close to the end of this now uh favorite place you visited and the top bucket list of the place you want to see before you don't have a chance to see it place has been for sure a trip I took to Myanmar Birmania okay I stayed there with my wife for about 10 12 days going to out the temples really nice nice people nice locations excellent service really really I I really like it a lot uh back at least I would say somewhere in Africa I have not been in Africa yet yeah I've I've been to Egypt uh that's about the extent of it I would I would love to explore there's we're doing a lot of work there these days I guess Seychelles is technically Africa but it's it's an island out in the Indian Ocean but yeah Ethiopia uh Namibia number a number of those places would be quite fascinating the the the real the real challenge is it there's never enough time to see everything you want to see right yeah absolutely okay the roundup question here your personal mantra in 10 words or less I always try to avoid referring to using the real world problem I'd rather change it to challenge uh opportunities tasks absolutely so to put it differently I I I I don't like to have uh some sort of negative connotation I rather think that things are there to overcome them to use the best out of you and to uh and take the best out of your team to override any challenge and to perform in any tasks that we can have in the future you know life is full with uh opportunities and when you take them and take the best out of them you know and that's when I was in the site management business all those years it one of the things that I kind of took on was if I only talk to you when there's a problem, that's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

So whether it's the airlines, customs, whoever the stakeholder is if the only time you're ever talking is when there are there's a problem, you're never going to have a good relationship. So make the point of having conversations when there isn't a crisis, right? Yeah yeah that's correct. Yeah absolutely that's correct well again those are those are good words to live by and I appreciate you spending some time with us here and sharing uh your insights both personal and professional and look forward to seeing you in Lima and maybe even sooner but certainly no later than this fall when we get together for the ACI conference.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

Thanks again thanks thanks for the opportunity congratulate you for your for your podcast and welcome to Lima anytime you want monsirks for joining us on Open Mic.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

If today's conversation sparked ideas or questions we'd love to hear from you. Visit airportIR.com forward slash open mic to listen to more episodes connect with our team and stay informed about the global aviation developments that matter to you