Jafles Pacheco is taking part in the Re-tool travel as a professional purchasing category
session at Business Travel Show Europe on 30 September. The
free-to-attend two-day event takes place on September 30 and October 1
at ExCeL London. Click here to register.
Jafles Pacheco has worked in different
strategic procurement roles for around 20 years with geographical scopes ranging from local to global. Today, Jafles is
the global head of indirect materials at technology company Oerlikon.
What’s the biggest challenge facing you as a buyer right now and why?
One challenge I am
seeing right now is that some suppliers – mainly airlines – are trying to take
advantage of the whole Covid situation and impose price increases
where I would expect a less confrontational, one-sided type of approach
in this re-start phase. Many of them have received generous financial aid
from their governments but kept our refund and cancellations monies for months
– some of them have not even paid it all back.
It makes me
furious when I see how some airlines are treating their customers at the moment.
What do you expect your business travel volumes to look like post-pandemic?
I expect it to gain
some more traction towards the end of this year. But back to pre-pandemic levels?
I'm not so sure. Maybe more towards the end of 2022 or so. It will depend on how
governments worldwide are going to work together to make more sense of the travel restrictions we are seeing right now.
What support would
you like to see from government(s) to get us all back on the road?
Talking to other
governments to align safety protocols and working together with the travel industry
to define strategies for a comeback.
What are you doing
to make your travel programme more sustainable and why is this important?
We will be looking
into incorporating sustainability goals in our KPIs and social sustainability
aspects to our policies and guidelines. This is simply the right thing to do. We
also have to prepare the ground before these become a requirement.
Why are you looking
forward to attending Business Travel Show Europe?
I am really looking
forward to meeting some of my preferred business travel peers in-person,
but also to meeting new ones. There is so much knowledge, networking and opportunities in
the event days.
Why should fellow
buyers attend your session at the show?
Business Travel
Show Europe is the place to be for anyone seasoned or fresh to the business travel industry.
It’s very international and the whole flow of the event, content of sessions,
and expertise delivered in masterclasses is a must.
• Jafles Pacheco is taking part in the Re-tool travel as a professional purchasing category session at Business Travel Show Europe on 30 September. The free-to-attend two-day event takes place on September 30 and October 1 at ExCeL London. Click here to register.