Seaplanes are coming to Colombia. Alma Air’s Rupert Stebbings Shares Key Details In This Exclusive Interview

Last year, Finance Colombia announced that a group of former Viva Air executives and investors were launching a new airline with an unexpected twist: They would be operating amphibious seaplanes. With financial backing from Irelandia Aviation, and an experienced management team, the viability of the new venture is virtually assured. Not directly competing with traditional airlines flying large jets from airport to airport, Alma (“soul” in Spanish) Air is planning to serve Colombia’s many islands, navigable rivers, coastal destinations, and quite possibly, even Colombia’s exotic Lake Ayapel.

Executive Editor Loren Moss sat down for a few minutes with Alma Air CEO Rupert Stebbings at Vitrina Turistica, the travel industry’s main event held every year in Bogotá’s Corferias convention center to understand the nascent air carrier’s progress:

Finance Colombia: I’m here with Rupert Stebbings at ANATO Vitrina Turística here in Bogotá. Rupert, aside from being a colleague, a contributor to Finance Colombia, and a friend, is doing something very exciting. And that is, you’re the CEO of Alma Air. And if I understand correctly, Alma is the first seaplane airline service in Colombia. Maybe you could tell us about the concept of Alma and what you guys have in store.

Rupert Stebbings: Sure. Loren, good to see you, man. Not the first, we’re a hundred years late. So, 1919 was the first ever. In the Magdalena and Barranquilla is where Avianca came from.

But, before 1950, all these planes had gone. So, since then, we’ve seen no seaplanes anywhere. Or amphibious, as they say. So, what has Alma looked at? Before the pandemic, we were here, under a code name, looking for information, and speaking to Aerocivil about the prospects. Why? Because the owners of the project had already seen seaplanes and traveled on seaplanes, such as the Maldives, Bahamas, and Alaska, they’re everywhere. And Colombia’s got everything for that. What’s it got? It’s got 20,000 kilometers of river, 3,000 lakes, and two coastlines. So, it’s got everything for seaplanes. It’s had seaplanes before, and we’re back. We’re in the process of bringing seaplanes back in.

Finance Colombia: Tell me about the… Have you gotten good cooperation from not just the national government, but you have to have the regional governments involved? We’re right here in the space that the Department of Bolivar loaned to us. So, there’s some cooperation there. Do you see excitement, or what has been the attitude from the regions and the departments and the localities to the project?

Rupert Stebbings: So, when I first got into this, what was my job? As some say, it’s counting chimney tops. “What’s out there? What’s going on?” So, I went around all the regions, six or seven governors, 10, 15 mayor’s offices. When we went to Aerocivil, we presented 34 letters of support for this project. Everyone, but everyone, loves it. Public, private, hotels, agencies, everyone wants it. Colombia is still completely disconnected.

You can’t get to half the places in this country. Even on a small, normal plane, you can’t get there. In terms of water, some places are just completely isolated. So, the feedback, and I’ve been around here for the whole day, sat down with seven or eight governors’ offices. They’re desperate. And their question is, “When, when, when?” They want it, they see the value, not just for high-end tourism, but there are medical issues.

By using seaplanes that can land on both runways and water, Alma Air will be able to reach every destination in Colombia, including remote airstrips and almost all major rivers.

There are also communities where… I was at the UN event in Cartagena, and the UN is supporting this process hard, they say the fastest way out of poverty is tourism. And if you’ve got the right place, you can do it. And Colombia has thousands of these towns and villages. All you’ve got to do is take the people with the money, to the people without the money, give them a great experience, and everyone’s a winner. So the enthusiasm is everywhere.

Finance Colombia: That’s great to hear because as you know, one of the great things to see in Colombia in the last decade or so is that the Colombians have a hobby that they call “puebleando,” where they like to go and visit the different small towns around. And it’s great when you’re in the coffee country, or when you’re in Antioquia, or here in Cundinamarca, it’s not that hard to do. But there are beautiful places. I was in Bahía Solano last year; Nuqui; we’ve talked about La Guajira and the natural beauty up there, but it’s so isolated. You can’t just get in a car and drive up that way. I would imagine that this is a great development opportunity for these regions.

Rupert Stebbings: The sweet spot for us is places that are like two, two and a half hours by boat, or five or six hours by car. Because normally, in our flight planning, we’ve done, it’s a 20-minute hop in a plane.

So, if you take San Bernardo, the islands, they’re two hours in a fast boat out of Cartagena. More than 40,000 people a year make that trip. It’s 35 minutes on a plane. When you’re on a boat, it’s open water. It’s rough. There are a bunch of places like that. And that’s our sweet spot. That’s where we fit in. And it’s where it’s worked around the world. It’s in Asia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

A lot of people have found routes like this. And that is a sweet spot. That’s why it works. And that’s why there’s demand. Because, as you say, it’s places like Ayapel. Ayapel is a UN-protected lake. The largest freshwater lake here. You can’t get there. It’s got no tourism. Or it takes so long to get there, especially for foreigners. I’ve got a two-week vacation, right? I can’t be doing five hours in a car. Take me in 20 minutes. I’ll pay the extra. And it’s high-end. But it’s also for everybody. Everyone says, well, you know, it’s X money. It’s X money, but you spend X money on a special event every year.

You take your wife away for the weekend, or your partner for the weekend. Take a seaplane. Go somewhere different. Go to a community. Go to an indigenous set-up. There are tons of places, and you’re correct. Either too far away, too uncomfortable, or completely disconnected.

Finance Colombia: Another advantage is that you all, you and the backers, this isn’t your first dance in Colombia. You guys have been through this before. You guys know what it’s like to take things through Aerocivil, to take things through the Ministry of Transportation. So I would imagine that that’s an advantage, because you already have the relationships, and you already know what needs to be done. What’s been the response from, and I don’t want to be political like one government or another, but what’s been the responsiveness when it comes to getting the regulatory process done?

Rupert Stebbings: Well, to put it in your vernacular, not our first rodeo. I think that’s more your style! But what’s the response been? Obviously, with the backers, we’ve been through this, we had a couple of decades here in total, working with the low-cost airline. We know it’s tough. And what makes it tough? Same with the low-cost airline. It’s a new concept. Low cost is a new concept here.

Seaplanes are a new concept. So there’s fear. Fear of the change, fear of the unknown, fear of writing something off and saying, “Yeah, you can do that,” but something goes wrong. It’s natural. It’s an educational process. We’ve got to educate people. It’s not a plane landing on the water. It’s the cleanest object you can have on the water. It’s cleaner than a motorboat. It’s education. No one’s seen these planes, so they can’t opine on it. They can’t say, “Yeah, I love it.” They don’t understand it. So basically, we’re working with the same people.

We understand bureaucracy. But that’s…when I was in congress; recently in Miami, the world, the whole world has the same problems with regulation and understanding of what a seaplane does and doesn’t do. And we’re working with it, and the experience helps us to be patient. But we believe in the project 100% or more is possible, and we’re going to stick with it.

Finance Colombia: My last question for you is probably the hardest. And I know how people in the airline industry hate this because it’s almost like a jinx or something.

Rupert Stebbings: Go on.

Finance Colombia: And you know what’s coming is, when do you project to be taking passengers?

Rupert Stebbings: Right, so I could give the easy answer, is after we hear from Aerocivil, I have five months on.

Finance Colombia: Okay.

Rupert Stebbings: That gives me an infinite number.

Finance Colombia: Right, right.

Rupert Stebbings: Now, we hope to hear back from Aerocivil next month. The second, we had a first feedback, we had to give them more information. We should hear back from them by March 17, and then we’ll take it from there. Once we get through the first phase with them, a lot of the work is done. It’s going to take us to the autumn in the US, so September or October is a guesstimate. Hopefully sooner, but we want to be… The thing is with this kind of project, it’s not seasonal.

Finance Colombia: Right, right.

Rupert Stebbings: This is year-round travel. It’s not the low-cost where you’ve got to put 180 people in a plane every single day, 10 times. It’s more hands-off. And for that, we’re not that worried…

Finance Colombia: Great, great. Well, I know that you’ve got a quality group of people. Alma Air, you already have a website up and operating, right?

Rupert Stebbings: Yep, flyalma.com.

Finance Colombia: Flyalma.com. OK, great.  You know that I’m going to be watching you guys like a hawk. Looking forward to seeing this. Super excited for you guys. You already know that. And keep us abreast of any good news.

Rupert Stebbings: Of course, naturally. Great seeing you, man. Thank you very much.