Colombia’s largest airline Avianca is working to backfill capacity in the Colombian market now that two of the country’s ULCCs—Viva and Ultra Air—have exited the market.
Both companies ceased operations earlier in 2023. Prior to Viva’s demise, Avianca was working to merge with its smaller rival, but Colombia’s government moved slowly in the approval process. Ultimately, Avianca walked away from the planned merger, believing the government-imposed conditions for approval would make Viva’s recovery impossible.
Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser told CAPA TV during the IATA annual general meeting in Istanbul June 4-6 that the company was looking to replace capacity into cities that have lost a lot of connectivity.
Neuhauser said the “most damage done” from the exit of Viva and Ultra Air has been in Medellin and San Andreas. According to Aviation Week’s CAPA, available seat kilometers (ASKs) at Medellin José María Córdova International airport for the week of June 12 have fallen 24% year-over-year. At San Andreas Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport, ASKs are down 42% for the same time period.
Avianca has the largest seat share at Medellin at 48% and LATAM Airlines Colombia is the largest airline at San Andreas with a 52% seat share.
Neuhauser said Avianca was working with lessors, recruiting staff, and working with authorities to “allow us to bring in the aircraft as quickly as possible” to replace some of the lost capacity.
Avianca is “seeing a lot of strong demand,” particularly in Northern Hemisphere long-haul markets, its CEO said.
“When you look at our network,” Neuhauser said, “the outperformance is coming from our flights to North America, our flights to Europe.” He said Avianca has added more capacity into Europe and “we’re working with some wet lease operators to increase capacity during the summer, and that’s working well.”
