is an airline with main base of operations located in
Bogotá, Colombia . It is Colombia's national
Flag Carrier operating international scheduled services to
Europe , the
United States , the
Caribbean and
Latin America , as well as domestic and charter flights. Its main base is located at
El Dorado International Airport (BOG), in Bogotá. Avianca also operates two subsidiary airlines called
SAM Colombia , and
OceanAir in
Brazil ."
Avianca is considered to be the second oldest airline still operating in the history of aviation, after
KLM of the
Netherlands , yet there is conflict in consideration of its claim that it is the oldest airline in the Americas and the second oldest in the world. This is due to the fact that the still operating
Chalk's Ocean Airways , a schedule seaplane airline flying between
Florida and
The Bahamas , had been founded two years earlier, beginning schedule service in
February of
1919 , and still exists in its same form and under the same name today. The conflict is still debated and could be ended if either airline ceases opearating. Although Avianca is oficially considered the second oldest airline in the world untill this day.
The airline was founded on December 5, 1919 as SCADTA in the city of Barranquilla. Then, Avianca was established in June 1940 by the merger of
SCADTA and
Servicio Aéreo Colombiano . Over the decades Avianca expanded their routes to include all of
South America , as well as
Central America , the
United States and the U.S. territory of
Puerto Rico ,
Mexico , and parts of
Europe . Avianca's fleet has included such types as the
Boeing 727 ,
Boeing 707 ,
Boeing 747 ,
Boeing 757 , and
Boeing 767 . Nowadays, they have retired the 707s, 727's and 747's but have added the
Fokker 50 ,
Fokker 100 and
MD-83 's to their fleet.
In March 2002 Avianca combined with its domestic subsidiary
SAM Colombia and merged with
ACES Colombia to form the Summa alliance and all operations began on
20 May 2002 . On
21 March 2003 Avianca filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debts of $446 million and, following the grounding of ACES Colombia in August 2003, Summa was officially dismantled the following November.
(Medellín) for its daily non-stop service to
Miami .]]
Continental Airlines placed a bid to acquire Avianca and combine it with its Panamanian unit,
Copa Airlines . On
November 17 ,
2004 the newspaper
El Tiempo reported that this bid was superseded by a proposal by the Group OceanAir/Grupo Synergy, owned by the Brazilian
Entrepreneur Germán Efromovich , to invest $63 million. The creditors backed this plan with more than 99% of the vote, and the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York has approved it. OceanAir would take 75% of the company, and the
Federación Nacional De Cafeteros (National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia) would retain 25% ownership, down from the current 50% it holds, with an option to sell out completely after 3 years have passed since emerging from bankruptcy.
Valores Bavaria , the owner of the Colombian brewery Bavaria, would sell its current 50% holding. The pilots, who presented their own letter of intent to the court on
November 16 , objected to the OceanAir plan.
After several discussions with the pilots, a degree of understanding was reached between the investors and interested parties. The OceanAir plan was eventually approved by debt holders and confirmed by judge Allan Gropper of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, thus the airline was able to emerge from Chapter 11 protection in December
2004 , under Efromovich as its newest owner.
In March
2005 , Avianca reported that it had achieved significant net profits at the end of 2004 (about $132 million ), contrasting with heavy 2003 losses (about $135 million). The new restructuring process, together with cost cutting measures (saving $70 million), Efromovich's investment (of which some $17.8 million had been delivered by March
2005 ), debt restructing and partial debt payments ($106 million), had placed the company in a positive economic position as 2005 began.
Until the Efromovich/OceanAir investment, Avianca had been owned by Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (50%), Grupo Valores Bavaria (43.73%) and other shareholders (6.27%). The airline also owns 94% of SAM Colombia, is a member of the LatinPass frequent flyer programme and employs 4,624 staff.
's
El Dorado International Airport .]]
Accidents on Avianca aircraft have been significantly low for an airline of its age and location within a nation that has struggled with drug trafficking and organized crime problems. The airline suffered a few incidents during the
1980s , which were arranged by rivaling gangs, under the assumption that a member of a rival gang was aboard. The deadliest of these incidents was
Avianca Flight 203 , which was bombed in
1989 .
It should be noted, however, that in most of the incidents, Avianca was not at fault as its planes had been in working condition and all incidents were determined to have been caused by gang intervention. It should also be noted that only one successful bombing occurred in the airline's history, while most other gang related incidents were related to hijackings, or shootings on board. In most hijackings, all passengers and crewmembers unaffiliated with the hijacker's cause were immediately released.
In the
1990s , after the death or arrest of various traffickers at the hands of Colombian police, Avianca regained its status as one of the safest airlines in the world.
Throughout its history, the airline has had several non-violence related crashes and incidents which include:
Avianca Flight 011 , a
Boeing 747-200 that crashed onto a mountain just short of landing at
Barajas International Airport in
Madrid, Spain in
September of
1983 . The cause was determined as pilot error.
Avianca Flight 410 , a
Boeing 727 domestic flight which crashed into low mountains after take-off on
March 17 ,
1988 , killing all on board. It was determined that pilot error was also the cause of this crash in a situation similar to that of Flight 11 five years earlier.
On
January 25 ,
1990 ,
Avianca Flight 52 , a
Boeing 707-321 jet (built in 1965) en route from Bogotá to New York City via Medellín, crashed into a town in Long Island after running out of fuel while in a
Holding Pattern , killing 73 of the 158 people aboard.
.]]
See Also: Avianca destinations
Avianca had initially announced the start of services out of its Bogotá Hub to: Los Angeles, Barcelona, London, Paris, and Amsterdam before the end of 2005, but recently the airline has announced it would not seek a European expansion instead opting to increase, begin, and restart services to more destinations in Latin America including, Havana, San Jose (Costa Rica), San Juan, Santo Domingo, and possible increased service to New York and Fort Lauderdale.
On
February 13 ,
2006 Avianca announced the re-opening of its old routes from
Pereira and
Barranquilla to
New York-JFK and from
Bogotá To
Los Angeles . The New York flights to Pereira via Barranquilla will begin on
June 2 ,
2006 and operate four times per week. The Los Angeles flight will operate three times per week beginning
June 15 ,
2006 . Avianca will also start new services from
Bogotá to
Barcelona, Spain starting
June 17 ,
2006 and
Alicante ,
Spain starting
June 21 ,
2006 . This service will operate non-stop to Barcelona on Saturdays, and to Barcelona via Alicante on Wednesdays.
On
April 2 ,
2006 the airline's president, , announced the opening of a new non-stop route from Barranquilla to Oranjestad, Aruba. The new service begins on
June 11 ,
2006 and will be served daily on a
Fokker 100 .
Recently in a press interview Avianca said that it is thinking of starting a new flight from
Medellín to Fort Lauderdale and They also said that they are thinking of starting a new flight from
Medellin to
San Juan, Puerto Rico via
Bogota if these flight due happen to come to service they will start in
December of
2006
from Avianca flying over the city of
Quito ,
Ecuador , with the background of
Volcano Pichincha (
2003 ).]]
The Avianca-Sam fleet consists of 49 aircraft (at April 2006):
