Serving for over ten years as CCO at Copa Airlines, alongside earlier stints at American Airlines and United, Dennis Cary’s experience across the industry makes him uniquely placed to understand the current issues aviation faces. At Aviation Festival Americas, we sat down with him to discuss resilience, sustainability, and technology across the Latin American region.

High jet fuel prices continue to dominate conversation as the conflict in the Middle East drags on. Airlines have adopted different strategies — some holding out for a speedy resolution, others pre-emptively cutting capacity — but Cary notes that preparation has become the key endurance factor amid aviation’s ever-fluctuating fortunes:

The next crisis is always right around the corner. Readiness is critical because if you hit the front end of one of these crises and you don’t already have that playbook written, then those are the ones that get in trouble.

Cary sees ‘really good work’ in the tech field to tackle operational efficiency and disruption management, both areas that have supported airlines through 2026. But he has a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude to AI adoption overall, recognising a lot of potential for change but pointing out that usership of generative AI models is still very low.

It’s early days but it does feel like the the power of cheap computing resources, and what looks like probably a big disruptor in AI, will be an enabler to solve some of these really hard problems in our industry a way that hasn’t been done before.

The current fuel crisis Cary also believes will help encourage more sustainability initiatives: never before have airlines been so incentivised to waste as little fuel as possible. However, he ultimately places responsibility for sustainability on aircraft manufacturers.

The Latin American outlook

Fuel represents a significant obstacle in the short term, but Cary remains optimistic about the future of aviation in Latin America. Having steered the Panamanian carrier Copa through significant network expansion, he notes that the air travel market in the region nevertheless remains one of the least-penetrated in the world. As of December 2025, it accounts for only 5.4% of global air passengers. But the industry is developing fast: annual capacity climbed 10.2% from 2024 to 2025, the highest rate of any region except Asia-Pacific.

From the vast South American continent to the disparate islands of the Caribbean, demand for air travel is shaped partly by geography but is being accelerated by economic growth as well as inbound tourism. Taxation and infrastructure are among the limitations that Cary hopes to see addressed so that aviation can flourish.

We should be very bullish on Latin America overall, and as long as we get partnerships, particularly from governments and airport operators, that should be an enormous economic growth engine for the region.

While airlines are always looking to attract high-paying business customers, Cary thinks they key demographic contributing to this growth are new-entrant travellers flying for leisure or to meet family. Nevertheless, for Latin American airlines serving the US market the preferences of older, wealthier passengers also need to be met to stay competitive.

The balancing act is to be premium enough to play in that space, but also say cost-efficient enough to be able to offer the low fares to bring in those new travellers.

🎥 Watch the video to get the full interview with Dennis Cary.

Questions asked include:

  • How do you see the current jet fuel crisis reshaping the aviation industry?
  • Where are the big opportunities in Latin American aviation today?
  • Which technologies do you think will be most transformative in the industry moving forward?
  • Has the industry as a whole taken their eye off the ball when it comes to sustainability?

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