Spotlight
VivaColombia spreads its wings
On May 25, VivaColombia officially launched operations. The event, marked by a ceremony at the Rionegro Airport, was attended by approximately 200 of the airline’s friends and business partners. A press conference hosted by VivaColombia’s CEO Fred Jacobsen kicked off the day’s activities and then guests were invited to board one of the three VivaColombia A320s for a flight over Medellin. Shortly after, VivaColombia conducted its first commercial flight to Bogota.
VivaColombia’s A320s are configured with a comfortable 180-economy seats layout and will allow the lowcost airline to be successful in its quest by providing an unbeatable seat cost. The A320 is known for its outstanding performance capability in challenging hot and high airports, an critical element that ensures realiable operations in the region.
Between July and October, VivaColombia will take their fourth and fifth A320s. The airline will serve 32 domestic destinations mainly out of Medellin and some out of Bogota. Noticias caught up with Fred Jacobsen after the launch of operations in order to get some feedback on the first months of operation:
1. Noticias: What factors led to the launch of the airline?
Fred Jacobsen: Colombia is the third largest market in Latin America, and yet less than 6% of the population travels by air regularly. There are over 34 million passengers per year traveling by bus distances that exceed six hours, which represents 1.75 times the current domestic market by air. Furthermore, Colombia's 45-million population depends on air travel to link large, medium and small cities and towns that are separated by vast mountains and jungles, which can add several hours of travel by bus. The current state of development of Colombia demands that its people can travel affordably between the city center, preferably on direct flights, instead of congested hubs.
2. Noticias: What were the reactions from the Colombian passengers?
Fred Jacobsen: In its first month of operation, VivaColombia has carried 36,500 passengers with an average load factor of 69% while some sectors like Medellin-Bogota, Medellin-Cartagena, Bogota-Cartagena and Pereira-Cartagena achieved 80%-90% load factors. We expect that Colombians will continue to jump onboard massively and that VivaColombia will alter the bahaviour of how Colombians travel by air.
3. Noticias: How do you see Airbus in VivaColombia’s future?
Fred Jacobsen: Our driver in terms of aicraft choice will always be the aicraft that can produce the lowest Cost per Available Seat-Kilometer (CASK). The A320 has achieved that for us right now, and we expect to continue growing our fleet in the years to come. Building realiable and efficient aicraft will be instrumental to ensure that we continue to build a strong relationship. I believe that Airbus made a smart move in increasing production of the A320.
4. Noticias: What will the A320 do for VivaColombia?
Fred Jacobsen: The A320 is allowing VivaColombia to achieve the lowest CASK in the market and this will be fundamental to continue driving prices down to stimulate market demand. The combined benefits of very good economics, reliability and adaptability to our market conditions are the key elements to achieveing our objective of being the airline with the lowest fares.
For more information contact:
Olivier Schuler
Senior Marketing Analyst Latin America & Caribbean
olivier.schuler@airbus.com