Colombia’s robust domestic growth continues unabated as subtle shifts occur in the market place

Growth in Colombia's domestic market continued full steam ahead during the first five months of 2013 as the country's passenger growth jumped 21% to roughly 8.5 million. This follows already strong 15% growth in domestic traffic during 2012, when the country's airlines transported close to 19 million domestic passengers.

The expansion reflects Colombia's stature as one of the fastest growing domestic markets in the world, fuelled by solid economic growth, a rising middle class and pent-up demand and opportunities for penetration by low-cost carriers. Presently, VivaColombia is the only carrier operating under a low-cost business model in the country. While it does operate on some of Colombia's trunk routes, VivaColombia is designing its network around a point-to-point framework to bypass the country's busier and more congested airports, namely Bogota.

Colombia's domestic market has undergone a subtle transformation during the last few years as LAN, which is now part of LATAM Airlines Group, purchased low-cost carrier Aires, overhauled its operations, adopted the full-service model and rebranded the carrier as LAN Colombia to solidify a presence in the increasingly important Colombian market. Copa Colombia (formerly Aerorepublica) opted to shift its focus to international operations while VivaColombia introduced service with the goal of replicating the low-cost business model its sister carrier VivaAerobus has forged in Mexico.