Luis Taborda

Background

About Luis Taborda

First of all, In everything I do professionally i do it with passion. Aviation for me is a passion since my very early years as I was born in a family of aviation people. My grandfather was a radio telegraphist at his time at Lisbon Airport and my father was a Airport Supervisor and Landside Manager in Lisbon Airport for several years (he started working at Lisbon Airport when he was 19!). So, for me going to the airport apron, seeing aircrafts arriving and departing it was something that i started doing when I was 6 years of age! I really had to work on this industry! Started my career in ANA Aeroportos de Portugal in the strategic planning area where I was able to learn and the experience airport forecasting, airport planning and master planning, business planning. Then I moved into a market research and market analysis are more related with at that was a new discipline in the Airports dictionary called Airport Marketing. We did economical and social impact studies, we did competition studies, I coordinated passenger surveys, participation in business development events like Routes and always coordinated my work with the work that was being brilliantly done by my colleagues at each of our Airports (LIS, OPO, FAO, FNC and PDL being the most sizable ones). Thus, i was always in back office functions for all my career. Then came the "game changer"! In 2014, with ANA being concessioned to VINCI Airports, I was invited to move into the front office being the Key Account Manager for Tour Operators and Charter Operations for all ANA Airports. At that time, ANA did not have any knowledge, know how or contact network in this industry which is completely different from the airline business. I build up knowledge and know how about TOs and their very different ways of acting in the business and I constructed a robust and diversified network of contacts that went further that only the Tour Operators and Charter airlines. It went to Hoteliers, Trade Associations, OTAs, OTOs. Then, in 2018, I was invited to join the TO role with an LCC role being responsible for the key accounting for the 4 major LCC clients in ANA (Ryanair, easyJet, Transavia France and Transavia Netherlands). It is a quite demanding role taking in consideration the relevance of this clients to the ANA turnover. Almost 20 years have passed since I started with ANA but my passion and drive for the Aviation business and for ANA is still my guidance for improving everyday to provide better and innovative solutions to my clients!