VivaColombia takes off in hotly contested, fast-growing Colombian market

VivaColombia made its official debut as Colombia's lone low-cost carrier on 25-May-2012, ushering in what it hopes to be new era in air travel in the booming Colombian market, which recorded in 1Q2012 a 12% hike in domestic passengers traffic to 3.8 million. While the carrier's stated goal is to shy away from highly competitive Colombian trunk routes, markets in VivaColombia's initial roll-out include some of Colombia's busiest routes that are dominated by the country's largest carrier Avianca and LAN Colombia, which is expanding capacity after taking time in 2011 to restructure the former unprofitable operations of Aires.

The LAN-initiated restructuring included dropping Aires' LCC model, which was introduced in early 2009 when the carrier gave Colombia its first taste of low fares, stimulating demand as domestic passenger traffic grew in Colombia by 13% in 2009 and a staggering 30% in 2010. The growth slowed in 2011 to only 5% to 14.6 million passengers as Aires significantly cut capacity. But for 2012 the growth in Colombia's dynamic domestic market is expected to return to double digits, driven partially by VivaColombia's launch.