Colombian air transport leaders are brimming with confidence after a record-breaking 2023 for travel and regular new flight announcements. Mike Miller reports on a reviving Latin American market from Routes Americas in Bogotá
Routes Americas 2024 descended on the Colombian capital Bogotá in March just as the country’s airlines had passed through a gauntlet of troubles, with post-bankrupt Avianca emerging as the renewed face of the market again.
With 900 delegates and more than 3,000 meetings, this was the largest Routes Americas event outside of the United States.
The 105-year-old Avianca finally turned a profit during the first nine months of 2023 after losing more than US$300 million in 2022. There have been many changes at the carrier as it transformed to a low-cost model.
One significant move is to begin charging for on-board meals after decades of offering hot meals on one-hour domestic flights. The airline carried 32.2 million passengers last year.
While Avianca was righting the ship, two Colombian airlines sank. Ultra low-cost carriers (ULCC s) Viva Air Colombia and Ultra Air both ceased flying in 2023, taking thousands of money-losing seats out of the market and returning country king Avianca to the throne.
Colombia added 23 new international air routes in 2023 after seeing 34 new routes debut in 2022, according to the country’s tourism arm ProColombia.
“It was a good year,” said Bogotá El Dorado International Airport CEO Natalí Leal. “We achieved 40 million passengers in Bogotá, plus 700,000 tons of cargo.”
Despite a significant local media presence at Routes Americas, all five Colombian executives speaking on the first day did so in English, and each had a different approach as to why Colombia should be viewed as a rising and healthy market. It was an impressively co-ordinated effort across the government and travel leadership to speak with one voice.
Colombia’s lofty goals
“We stand together in a common dream as a force to unite our hemisphere,” said Sergio París, Director of Aeronautica Civil, Colombia’s top aviation regulatory body.
“We have a lot of people with courage to survive the last several years, and the best of those are in aviation,” París said. “We are steadfast to open our skies to foreign competition. We are telling leaders in the region – in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia – to open their markets to international flights.”
París highlighted Colombia’s roots in creating the underpinnings of an aviation market in South America. “Our innovation is historic. Pan Am’s embarkation of new service across the Americas coincided with our own airline, Avianca, launching in 1919.”
París was being modest: Pan Am in fact launched in 1927, a full eight years after Avianca took to the skies.
The Vice Minister of Tourism in Colombia, John Alexander Ramos, had a unique expression of what sets Colombia apart: “We have 10% of the biodiversity of the planet combined with 1,000 rhythms that the world dances to.”
The country’s confidence is verified by several recent airline decisions to launch service. Top among them is Dubai-based Emirates, which received permission in February to operate fifth-freedom flights between Dubai and Bogotá with a stop in Miami (because the location of Bogotá’s airport at an altitude of 8,600 ft makes it impossible to fly the route with full fuel tanks).
The United Arab Emirates carrier will fly the route daily starting in June with a Boeing 777 with capacity for 354 passengers. Colombia will become the third South American country served by Emirates for passenger flights; the airline already operates to Argentina and Brazil.
Chile-based JetSMART also debuted in Bogotá the week before Routes Americas with several new routes, and more are planned. Avianca and LATAM are expanding too. In 2024 there are 11 cities in Colombia with international air service.
“In the last five years we have seen a shift to new international flights to new cities that don’t touch Bogotá,” said Gilberto Salcedo, Vice President of Tourism for ProColombia, the country’s tourism agency. Citing Cartagena, Medellin and Cali as the biggest beneficiaries, he said there has been an 80% increase in non-Bogotá international flights.
Country of beauty
The country’s new marketing slogan is ‘The Country of Beauty’ and ProColombia is showing off six distinct regions with unique offerings for travellers, from the beaches in the north to the coffee region in the centre and the biodiverse landscape of the headwaters of the Amazon River in the south. The six colour-coded regions were featured on floors, walls and presentations throughout the event.
At the centre is Bogotá airport, which is ranked fourth globally for on-time performance by Cirium. The country’s airports plan to welcome a combined total of 100 million passengers by 2032.“We are a nation brimming with hospitality,” París noted.
Confidence aside, taxes on travel in Colombia are higher than many competing countries, said IATA Regional Vice President Americas Peter Cerda.
“The new Emirates flight to Bogotá [suggests] that Colombia needs to look at its market through the lens of global competition, not just local,” he said. “The global average is 27% tax on travel, while Colombia is 51%.”
“When less than half the ticket [price] goes to the airline, this is why we struggle in the [Latin American] region,” Cerda said.
Estuardo Ortiz, CEO of new Colombian entrant JetSMART, echoed those concerns. “When it comes down to prices, if you want more travellers and you look at high taxes (in Colombia), it’s the core issue preventing growth,” he said.
“The last time Latin America made money as a region was in 2017,” Cerda went on. “You need to have tourism and transportation as your focus if you want your region to thrive,” he said.
Cerda noted that the market is in “a period of tremendous growth” even with the collapse of Viva Air Colombia and Ultra Air. “Airlines like [Copa Holdings’ Colombian subsidiary] Wingo, Avianca and others stepped up and filled the void left by these two airlines,” he said.
As significant as Emirates’ arrival will be later this year, Colombia is already experiencing growing international demand. That demand is diverse: Switzerland’s Edelweiss Air began flights from Zurich to Bogotá and Cartagena in late 2023, for instance, making Zurich the eighth European destination connected to the Colombian capital.
“Colombia is becoming a very popular market for business travel and tourism, which is very important,” Cerda said, noting that growth is occurring beyond just Bogotá. For example: “We see significant capacity strengthening in places like Cartagena and Cali,” he said, echoing Salcedo’s comments.
Colombia is betting that its combination of world-renowned biodiversity and friendly hospitality will bring new travellers, no matter the cost.
