Avianca

Avianca

‘’Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia S.A Avianca’’ is the first commercial airline founded in the Americas and the second one in the world (two months after KLM), it´s creation was produced by the Germans Wener Kaemerer, Stuart Hosie, Alberto Tiejien and the Colombians Ernesto Cortizzos, Rafael Palacio,Cristóbal Restrepo, Jacobo Correa and Arístides Noguera. This visionaries found it in December 5/1919 in the city of Barranquilla as ‘’Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transporte Aéreo SCADTA’’

It is Colombia´s biggest airline and also it´s flag carrier (although there were bigger airlines nowadays deceased). Offers flights from and to Europe and the Americas (taking into account domestic flightsthrough Colombia) thanks to their large fleet and strong alliances through the world (Star alliance for example). Their headquarters are located in Bogotá D.C, as their main national and international hub (Aeropuerto Internacional El Dorado) where schedule and charter flights operate.

After 9/11 terrorists attacks the aviation industry went through an economic crisis, therefore Avianca madealliances with Aces (Aerolineas Centrales de Colombia) and Sam (Sociedad Aeronautica de Medellín) therefore creating Alianza Summa.

Alianza Summa announced and adjustment including diminishing 30% of it´s fleet, the cancelation in the same percentage of it´s labor and work contracts and the restructuring of it´s routes and local and international frequencies, this restructuring was marked by lossesin the operation and by the debt of Avianca which reached $240 million dollars. This difficult situation forced Avianca to benefit from C-11 (bankruptcy US law) with airlines as Delta, Swissair or United.

In 2004 the oldest airline of America was acquired by a Brazilian group named Sinergy (owned by Germán Efromovich) by a 75%.The National Federation of Coffee Growers, association that bringstogether growers of grain, decreased from 50% to 25% its stake in Avianca, the other partner, Valores Bavaria, a conglomerate of telecommunications, media, beverage, petrochemical trade and Holy Group Sunday, left the aviation industry to pursue his other businesses.

In 2009 a merger between two of the biggest Latin American airlines occurred. Avianca and Taca (Transportes del ContinenteAmericano) got together to form an alliance. From this union, Avianca and TACA serve 109 destinations in coordination with a fleet of 129 aircraft, mostly built by Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Fokker. It is noteworthy that in overall, between July 2008 and June 2009, both airlines carried 13.6 million passengers, meanwhile, its customer base members to their frequent flyer programs Avianca Plus andDistancia reach up to 3.3 million.

This two successful companies came together to build the most comprehensive network ofpassenger and cargo services in Latin America, developing new markets from its hubs in Bogota, San Salvador, San Jose, Costa Rica and Lima. This was an estrategic merger to compete directly with the biggest airlines of Latin America as Copa Airlines (Compañia Panameña de Aviación)and Lan (Linea Aerea Nacional).

Mission:
* We fly and serve with passion to earn your loyalty.

Vision:
* To 2015, be the leader airline of Latin America preferred in the world, having the best place to work, the best choice for costumers and an outstanding value for shareholders.

Their quality policy consists on:

* Safety, through the close attention of the technicalguidelines, operational and administrative.
* The Friendliness, providing personalized assistance, warm, flexible and effective, according to corporate guidelines that tend to establish a high performance culture.
* Compliance in the execution of our work, in order to deliver products and services with the characteristics of quality, quantity and timeliness negotiated and announced.
*...