AGUNSA grows in the area of air representations and closely observes E-commerce

From its traditional activities, maritime and air representations, both cargo and passengers, AGUNSA has moved its base towards logistics in general, as well as port and airport concessions.

However, this does not mean that representations have lost momentum. “I would say that we have managed to keep them gravitating because we have grown considerably in the aerial part.  However, in the maritime part, we have continued to grow in this last period and are still by far the second agency in Chile,” says Luis Mancilla, general manager of AGUNSA, in a conversation with MundoMaritimo.

In fact, the executive highlights that “the growth of the air segment, both in cargo as well as with passengers, has made this business continue being important for us,” which fits perfectly with the general development of the Group: “The air cargo representation are quite linked, and are part of a logistics chain,” says Mancilla.

The Group, its progress and adaptation to the market, especially in the air segment, has meant that it has had to consistently update itself in IT.  Developments have been made for the attention to the airlines in the airports, which entails taking charge of the counters, baggage checks and in general, the attention of all of the services that revolve around the air business.

“We have grown there and we have a relatively large unit to provide these services in the airports, in addition to the representation of airlines and cargo,” the executive said.

Concessions

In terms of concessions, as of this past May 1, AGUNSA jointly took control of the Puerto Montt Airport with Sacyr.  “It is a short concession of six years, of a fixed term and quite different from what the Ministry of Public Works has traditionally done, although it is not a minor investment, in the order of US $ 42 million,” says Mancilla, who highlights the experience of Sacyr in construction and AGUNSA in the operation for the development of this business.  “Puerto Montt is a very important airport, it is fighting with Antofagasta for first place in the regions,” he says.

The concession in Manta, Ecuador, also stands out: “It is our most important port Project where we took control of it and the operations last year.  The largest investments are in full development and will last for the next two or three years.”

Summing up the progress in the concession program of this port, Mancilla does not hesitate to state that “Mantas has done very well, exceeding our expectations,” highlighting that “the mobilization of cars has really been a boom.  I believe that there has been an exceptional job done there, since this port today accounts for more than 80% of the total number of cars imported into Ecuador.”