Spotlight
Interview with VivaColombia CEO Barry Biffle
Noticias caught up with VivaColombia to take a closer look at how it has changed the way Colombians travel. Before his position’s change, we met Barry Biffle, former VivaColombia’s CEO, who opened up about the airline’s successful journey since starting operations in 2012.
Since its launch, Viva has focused on the domestic market. Now that you are expanding internationally, how will this change the way Colombians travel today?
B.B_ VivaColombia has enjoyed huge success in stimulating the domestic market. Prior to our arrival, air travel was out of reach for most Colombians. The average Colombian was forced to travel by car and spend a day traveling through the mountains. Today, our fares are similar to bus fares enabling people to not only afford travel but reduced the time requirement by up to 80 percent. This is improving the lives of millions of Colombians. Expanding our service internationally will further improve the economy and the lives of average Colombians. Take Panama for example. Today it is not uncommon to pay the equivalent of over $500 USD for a ticket to Panama - that is for a flight less than two hours. Later this year, Colombians will now have the option of beaches and shopping they do not have today. And we expect the savings available from shopping will more than cover the cost of our ticket!
According to the “Viva Effect,” the routes that have a significant number of flights operated by VivaColombia grew 57.4 percent but those where VivaColombia doesn’t have a significant presence like Bogota-Medellin-Bogota have only grown 15.4 percent. On the other hand, the market where VivaColombia has no presence, which corresponds to 10.45 million passengers only grew 685,000 passengers, equivalent to 6.7 percent. The market where VivaColombia has presence grew two million passengers equivalent to 23.5 percent.
VivaColombia is very active on social media. What role does it play in your strategy?
B.B_ Social media is very powerful and we have found it to be extremely aligned with our business model. Promoting low fares as well as communicating operating information is not only easy, but very low cost. Right now VivaColombia has 81,400 followers on Twitter and 125,000 fans on Facebook.
Many low cost carriers worldwide consider the A320 as their aircraft of choice. What role has the A320 played in VivaColombia’s success since its launch?
B.B_ The A320 provides a modern, comfortable experience for our passengers. The A320 fuselage provides a slightly wider cabin than other single aisle competition, delivering greater personal space for our customers even when utilizing a high density configuration. We have also found the support from Airbus to be top notch, ensuring high standards for safety and reliability for our fleet. Couple this with attractive operating costs and we believe the aircraft has performed well for our airline.
VivaColombia is already geared toward success and we wish Mr. Biffle all the best for the future.
For more information contact:
Olivier Schuler
Senior Marketing Analyst, Latin America and Caribbean
olivier.schuler@airbus.com