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)

Tickets are no longer being sold for any travel, marking the first time in more than 60 years that Avianca has not operated flights to Venezuela. The airline stated that it will attempt to help already-ticketed passengers travel to Caracas on another airline “based on availability.” Anyone whose reservations cannot be transferred to a different carrier will have their payments fully reimbursed, said Avianca in a statement.

The company’s top executive called the move a “difficult decision” while citing safety concerns and operational difficulties in his original comments. Throughout the year, and especially in recent weeks, there has been rising instability in the country, where food shortages have become constant and more than 100 people have died this year during near-daily protests against President Nicolas Maduro.

Avianca has informed regional aviation authorities it will be shutting down two routes that connect the Venezuelan capital to the capitals of Colombia and Peru. The carrier will cease both its twice-daily flight between Bogotá and Caracas as well as its daily flight between Lima and Caracas, stated Avianca.

“After more than 60 years of continuous service in Venezuela, at Avianca we regret that we had to arrive at this difficult decision, but our responsibility is to guarantee the safety of operations,” said Hernán Rincon, chief executive of Avianca.

In his initial comments, Rincon stressed that the airline is willing to resume flights to Caracas if the “required conditions” for operations re-emerge. In its statement, Avianca noted that Venezuela currently is failing to meet international standards and needs to improve its airport infrastructure.

Delta Airlines, later the same day, announced that it would also stop flying to Venezuela. Though it only operates one flight per week to the country, from Atlanta to Caracas, it will end that route after September 16.

According to Airways magazine, this will leave American Airlines as the only U.S. carrier still flying to Venezuela. In addition to Avianca and Delta, according to the publication, United, Air Canada, Aeromexico, LATAM, Alitalia, Lufthansa, GOL, Insel Air, and Dynamic have also cancelled routes to the country.

Avianca’s original announcement came on the same day that the United States levied sanctions against 13 current and former officials of the Venezuelan government. Through the U.S. Treasury Department, all assets under U.S. jurisdiction held by the 13 individuals have been frozen, and U.S. citizens are now prohibited from dealing with them.

The agency’s sanctions come less than a week before Maduro’s planned election on Sunday to field the group that will form the National Constituent Assembly that “will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions.“ Those named in the decree, according ot the Treasury Department, are current or former officials in agencies “associated with the elections or the undermining of democracy,” including the “government’s rampant violence against opposition protesters” and general corruption.

“As President Trump has made clear, the United States will not ignore the Maduro regime’s ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom, and the rule of law,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy. Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions.”

“Today Colombia has more airline connections and that permits all regions and all users to benefit with more alternatives in airlines and flights, and with more connections, destinations, and frequency,” said Gustavo Alberto Lenis (above), Aeronautica Civil’s director.

New Control Tower At Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport

Aerocivil also has announced the completion and activation of a new air traffic control tower and aeronautics management center in Bogotá, at Colombia’s flagship El Dorado International Airport. Conceived in 2011, the 30 month, $50 million USD project was completed by Torre Muisca Consortium, a syndicate of contractors. The new tower and control center was built as a response to the growing demand and traffic of flights and passengers through El Dorado International Airport.

At 84 meters in height, and with an internal area of 5,430 square meters (58,448 square feet), the steel and concrete tower was designed with motifs evocative of the Muisca indigenous culture, people that still exist today, in their ancient homeland, part of which is now the city of Bogotá.

Tower characteristics:

El Dorado International Airport’s (Bogotá) Muisca Tower under final stages of construction.

• Visual ground control cabin with 360-degree views and 16 controller positions
• Technical support area
• Aeronautics meteorology stations
• Equipment room for navigation and stationary avionics equipment
• Antenna platform
• Employee lounge

The Centro de Gestión Aeronáutico de Colombia (CGAC), or Aeronautics Management Center of Colombia (pictured above), also part of the construction Project, is a 9,355 square meter (100,696 square feet) circular complex consisting of six interconnected buildings, including integrated power generation, air conditioning, and water supply. A fortified tunnel connects it with the control tower.

The CGAC is an advanced control center with radar facilities, IP telephony, redundant power and electronics, navigation, meteorology, recording and security systems, with an integrated videowall display. The CGAC is interconnected with all other air traffic control (ATC) facilities in the country, allowing real-time monitoring of any local situations or conditions elsewhere in Colombia.

“For years, the airport sector looked like a photo where decades passed without investing in the airports. Today, we are working practically on all of them to modernize and guarantee better efficiency in air operations, and the proof of that change is that we are inaugurating this advanced control tower and CGAC,” said Lenis.