New routes and alliances for 2023
As part of its growth plans, Avianca will open seven new routes as of December 8, and will reactivate 15 more in markets such as Central America. Among these, there will be new flights to Cancun from Medellin and Costa Ricaas well as another new route from the Mexico City a Medellin.
However, what will keep the airline busy is the participation it seeks to have both in the Brazilian GOAL –the largest in that market– and in the airline low cost colombian Viva Airwhich Avianca wants to shelter under a new conglomerate: Grupo Abra.
On the one hand, the concentration with GOL has obtained the approvals of Brazil and the United States, for which reason close the transaction at the end of this year or during January 2023. However, with Viva Air the story is different, since the Colombian government recently denied the agreement given a high overlap of routes, which raises concerns in terms of competition.
Avianca filed an appeal in which they propose to give up some takeoff and landing times in Bogotá, among other actions. The Colombian government has a period of two months to respond to this, with which the case will remain that way at least until January 2023.
If the refusal continues, Neuhauser sees a strong risk that Viva Air disappears from the marketfor which there is no alternative but to move forward with the purchase process.
“We believe that Viva needs financial support; We do not have access to fine data due to competition, but we have a global vision of the behavior of our sales and their sales, and we see that they are in a critical situation of expenses”, he concluded.