Colombia’s commercial aviation is going through turbulent weeks as the future of Viva, the country’s largest ultra low-cost carrier, whose integration process with Avianca has been hindered by local aviation authorities fearing that it will create an unfavourable competitive situation for both passengers and the rest of the airlines, is being decided.
JetSMART’s interest in Viva was joined on Tuesday by that of LATAM Airlines, giving this «Colombian novel» increasingly closer to that of a Mexican one.
In this context, the visit to Colombia of Mauricio Sana, CEO of Flybondi, who together with other executives of the Argentinean low-cost airline, is carrying out this week a very full agenda with different players in the Colombian airline and tourism industry.
The meetings include executives from the country’s main airlines, airports, suppliers and government authorities, among others, and are aimed at exploring business opportunities and connections with different Flybondi destinations in Argentina.
While it would be risky to link this tour directly to Viva’s situation, the timing raises suspicions, because if the post-pandemic has taught us anything, it is that no alliance or merger sounds ridiculous when what is at stake is survival. And that is what Viva is going through today.
The opening of subsidiaries in other countries, mergers, alliances or joint ventures are some of the main ways that airlines choose to continue growing when the local market has already reached a certain ceiling, and LATAM Airlines Group is the paradigmatic case of this in our region, just as the exception to the rule could be Copa Airlines as the great «lone wolf» helped by the particularities of its local market and an enviable geographical location to fulfil so well the role it has as a connector of the Americas (without detracting from its management).
That is why Flybondi may at some point turn to its family tree, which through different branches such as board members or investors links it to the Olympus of global low-cost airlines, to seek to grow far beyond Argentina, as they predict in the report associated with the 2021 balance sheet and presented three weeks ago, where they state that «the group is increasingly better positioned to benefit from and participate in the acceleration of the regional consolidation of the Latin American airline industry».
Since its first flight in January 2018, Flybondi has already carried more than 6 million passengers (2.1 million in 2022). Its current network reaches 17 destinations in Argentina and 3 in Brazil where it deploys its 12 Boeing 737-800s.
Argentina – Colombia market
Currently, the offer between Argentina and Colombia is dominated by airlines from Colombia.
Aerolíneas Argentinas operates a daily flight between Buenos Aires/Aeroparque and Bogotá on Boeing 737-700 aircraft. This represents an offer of 896 seats per direction per week.
Avianca carries out 14 weekly flights between Bogotá and Buenos Aires/Ezeiza, three with A320neo aircraft and 11 with Boeing 787-8 aircraft, which translates into 2,750 seats per direction per week.
Finally, Viva operates one daily flight between Bogotá and Buenos Aires, and one daily flight between Medellín and Buenos Aires, both with A320 aircraft. This represents an offer of 2,520 seats per direction per week.
