“Emirates customers flying on its network via Madrid, Barcelona, or London (Heathrow) can go directly to three points in Colombia and enjoy seamless connectivity, plus other travel benefits that offer more convenience,” said Emirates in a statement. “Codeshare flights will include Madrid to Bogotá, Medellín or Cali; Barcelona to Bogotá; and London to Bogotá.”

For its part, Avianca will place its code on routes operated by Emirates between Barcelona, Madrid or London (Heathrow) and Dubai.

“Customers of both airlines,” added Emirates, “will enjoy the convenience of smoother connectivity, a single booking on a single ticket with no hassle, while taking advantage of the advantage of securing competitive fares and a single checked baggage allowance to the final destination.”

The agreement comes just a few months after Avianca publicly opposed Emirates entry to the Colombian market.

Specifically, the Colombian carrier complained that “Emirates just wants to exploit mature markets” and threatened that hundreds of jobs would be put at risk.

Such claims did not sway the Andean nation’s regulators, which approved Emirates’ request for authorization to become a foreign operator to operate international regular public transport air services on international routes to and from Colombia, from Dubai and Bogotá, with a stopover in the city of Miami.

“The codeshare agreement will allow us to expand our reach and allow our customers to use our services and fly to additional popular points in Colombia,” said Adnan Kazim, deputy president and chief commercial officer at Emirates.

The flight, which will have a stopover in Miami en route to the Colombian capital, is set to have its inaugural takeoff in early June, according to the UAE-based airline. It will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft that seats up to 354 passengers and can haul 20 tons of cargo on each flight.

The final red tape hurdles to launch the route included formalities including approvals by Colombian aviation regulator AeroCivil.

“Emirates is excited to launch our daily service to Bogota and connect Colombia to the Middle East and beyond,” said Salem Obaidalla, senior vice president of  commercial operations of the Americas for Emirates, speaking at the Routes Americas 2024 event in Bogotá.

The airline says it has working toward this day since 2018, when it began to participate in local industry events and pave the way for its eventual authorization with a range of aviation and business sector stakeholders in the nation.

“The addition of Bogotá to our growing global network of more than 130 destinations,” added Obaidalla, “allows us to strengthen our coverage in the Americas, reaching 19 points, and reinforces our ability to deliver better connectivity and expand options for travelers while providing our signature premium services.”

(Photo credit: Emirates)

The approval contemplates the start of regular daily passenger operations between Dubai and Bogotá, through Miami beginning June 3, 2024. The flights will be operated with Boeing 777-200LR and 777-300ER aircraft with the capacity to transport up to 354 passengers in a three-class configuration, and 14 tons of cargo on each flight.

According to the airline’s study presented to Aerocivil, Colombia represents a significant and growing demand for air travel to and from the United Arab Emirates and the Arab world. Emirates also will enable significant connectivity between Colombia, Africa and Asia through Dubai.

Avianca’s complaints

What made a routine approval more interesting was the reaction of the dominant carrier in Colombia’s market, Avianca who publicly complained that “Emirates just wants to exploit mature markets” and threatened that hundreds of jobs would be put at risk. Interesting assertions, as Avianca does not fly to Dubai or other nearby destinations.

Avianca, the airline that sought to dominate slots in Bogotá’s El Dorado International airport through its purchase of low cost carrier Viva (which later collapsed under Avianca’s ownership), accused Emirates of not respecting principles of equity, opportunity, and reciprocity, and invited Aerocivil to “evaluate these precedents.”

Emirates invited Avianca to establish a route to and from Dubai, and to “not be short sighted because borders are ending.”

The Minister of Transportation William Camargo Triana assured that “The arrival of Emirates to Colombia marks a historic milestone in our air connectivity and strengthens commercial and cultural ties with the Arab world. This alliance will enhance tourism, trade and investment, promoting the country’s economic development and consolidating our position as a global destination. “We are committed to continuing to promote initiatives that promote the growth and international integration of Colombia.”

For his part, the General Director of Civil Aeronautics, Sergio París, pointed out that: “In the field of international relations, Colombia opens paths towards new scenarios of collaboration and understanding. Today, we are pleased with the establishment of an air connection with the vibrant city of Dubai, which marks not only a link between destinations, but also symbolizes our nation’s firm commitment to global integration. “The Arab nations are witnesses of a prosperous and diverse Colombia, prepared to cultivate ties of friendship, tourism and trade that transcend geographical borders, contributing to the construction of a more connected world.”

The approval of the request is under the auspices of “the fifth freedom of the air,” through the United States, a commercial aviation principle consisting of the right to embark and disembark passengers, mail and cargo to or from third States.

For those passengers who have already purchased business class tickets, renamed to XL and XXL, if the aircraft has already had their business class seats removed, Avianca will assign them to the first three rows of the aircraft with the middle seat unavailable.

Now, upgrades, which Avianca will still give out as before, will mean the passenger gets to sit up front. So far, the airline has not announced any removal of business class on international flights.

Analysis

Avianca’s post-bankruptcy strategy seems to be to compete with emerging low-cost carriers like Viva, Spirit and Wingo by becoming one, rather than staying with a full service model such as Copa or Delta, attractive to business travelers.

The airline has already kicked out many of its most loyal fliers from its lounges, changed its redemption model to make it more expensive to attain elite status, and then United Airlines reduced lounge access for Star Alliance travelers including Copa and Avianca.  so the question becomes: “Why fly Avianca—an airline that once differentiated itself on service and comfort? An airline that defined itself a few years ago as something of a regional Emirates or Cathay Pacific of the Andes?”

It’s true that business-class domestic didn’t get the passenger much more on the flight itself. All flight segments within Colombia are less than two hours in length. No food was served on Avianca’s previous domestic business class. Passengers essentially got a bigger seat and priority boarding.

Domestic business class was still worth the cost for many frequent business travelers as status with Avianca and the Star Alliance once brought with it upgrades and lounge access the Star Alliance network. When Avianca began to have operational difficulties beginning with the 2017 pilot strike and its aftermath, Avianca would often find hotels for stranded Lifemiles elite passengers while leaving regular customers to sleep overnight on the airport floor.

Still, with business travelers, time is money. The most exquisite lounges in the world (which Avianca does not offer) cannot make up for canceled flights, missed meetings and connections, and unpredictability. Avianca’s previous management led by Germán Efromovich lost control of the company and a new team was brought in, but even months before the COVID pandemic hit, board chairman Roberto Kriete was caught on a leaked video calling Avianca “bankrupt” before the pandemic and flight groundings forced the airline into real, legal bankruptcy.

Most airlines that have tried to be all things to all people have failed. Panamá based Copa does own Colombia-based Wingo but manages it as a separate operation with its own infrastructure, management and marketing. Copa does very well as an all-international airline (with the exception of one domestic route to and from Davíd, Chiriquí), a serviceable—though overcrowded lounge in its Tocumen International Airport home base, and little direct pressure on its routes.

Avianca still flies a few trans-Atlantic flights after filing for bankruptcy, but for Latin American and Caribbean destinations, US travelers who want to stay in Star Alliance can connect to most destinations, even within Colombia through Copa, and Delta passengers now have Latam as a partner. Low-cost travelers, and even business travelers who aren’t beholden to a legacy network can choose from aggressive new low-cost carriers and connecting flights between Colombia and Florida in the US are under 4 hours—short flights where first and business class options are less important to the passenger.

Most airlines know they can’t be all things to all people, and don’t try to. Ryanair doesn’t try to be Emirates, and Spirit doesn’t try to be Delta. Automakers face the same challenge. Mercedes and BMW fared very poorly when they tried to launch economy low-end models. Toyota and Nissan set up separate operations, Lexus and Infiniti in order to move upmarket. The question here is: Is Avianca trying to be Wingo or Viva? It does not have the DNA of a low-cost carrier.

If Avianca wants to be a low-cost carrier, what is its value proposition to customers? Why fly Avianca instead of the real low-cost carriers? Lifemiles no longer gets passengers what they once did. The lower Avianca’s fares, the less Lifemiles the passenger collects (unlike before, when they were based primarily on miles flown), and now, unless passengers are flying on a 1^st or business class international ticket, Avianca & Copa status travelers can no longer benefit from many Star Alliance lounges.

In fact, independent lounges not run by an airline are becoming more popular. The Lounge Medellín operates in the José Maria Córdova international airport, open to any passengers that wish to pay admission or join lounge networks like Priority Pass. This option is trending as airline operated lounges have been restricting admission or tightening requirements to members of third-party networks like credit card perk programs or Priority Pass.

Can Avianca successfully reinvent itself as a low-cost carrier? Is there some other strategy that they are implementing? Removing business class from short haul commuter flights is not a big deal by itself. In fact, it makes a lot of sense. But what is Avianca’s strategy? What does the airline want to be, and more importantly, what kind of airline, if any at all, is it capable of being in the future?

The largest Colombian carrier beat out all the others on the continent for the top regional honoree in the 2018 World Airline Awards, including second-place finisher Azul Airlines of Brazil, LATAM (third) and Sky Airlines (fourth) of Chile, and Aerolíneas Argentinas (fifth) of Argentina.

Discount airline EasyFly of Bogotá ranked seventh in South America, with TAME (sixth), Gol (eighth), Austral Líneas Aéreas (ninth), and StarPeru (tenth) rounding out the top 10 of what Skytrax’s refers to as its “passenger’s choice awards.”

Avianca also won first place for having the Best Economy Class in South America, while the Star Alliance, which includes Avianca, outranked OneWorld Alliance and SkyTeam Alliance as the World’s Best Airline Alliance.

Copa Airlines, the Panama-based carrier that has long operated in Colombia, finished first in the regional rankings for Central America and the Caribbean.

Winners of the Skytrax’s World Airline Awards, which have been presented in each of the past 18 years, were announced on July 17 during a ceremony at the Langham Hotel in London. The awards are decided by passenger votes, and more than 20.3 million survey results were used to decide this year’s winners, according to Skytrax.

Globally, for the fourth time, Singapore Airlines won top honor as the World’s Best Airline as well as Best First Class. “A key ‘wow’ factor for customers is consistency, and this proved to a real asset for Singapore Airlines, who scored highly across both product and service,” said Edward Plaisted of Skytrax.

Other carriers known for luxury, long-haul flights followed closely behind in the overall global top 10, including Qatar Airways, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, and Lufthansa. Qatar Airways also won for World’s Best Business Class.

Another Asian company, China Southern Airlines, was recognized as the World’s Most Improved Airline. It now ranks second in the country of some 1.4 billion people behind Hainan Airlines, according to voters.

World’s Best Airlines – Global

1. Singapore Airlines
2. Qatar Airways
3. ANA All Nippon Airways
4. Emirates
5. EVA Air
6. Cathay Pacific
7. Lufthansa
8. Hainan Airlines
9. Garuda Indonesia
10. Thai Airways

World’s Best Airlines – South America

1. Avianca
2. Azul Airlines
3. LATAM
4. Sky Airline
5. Aerolineas Argentinas
6. TAME
7. Easyfly
8. Gol
9. Austral Líneas Aéreas
10. StarPeru

World’s Best Airlines – Central America & Caribbean

1. Copa Airlines
2. Caribbean Airlines
3. Air Caraibes
4. Bahamasair
5. LIAT
6. Cayman Airways
7. interCaribbean
8. Cubana
9. Suriname Airways
10. Insel Air

(Photo credit: Avianca)