Colombia’s Avianca is streamlining its fleet with a goal of flying passengers exclusively with Airbus A320s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners by June 2023.
The 103-year-old Bogota-based carrier is expecting deliveries of 16 A320neos, 11 A320ceos and three 787s in 2023, it said during a press conference at Avianca’s corporate headquarters in Bogota on 6 December.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the airline’s fleet also included A319s, A330s, ATR42s and ATR72s.
“We’re moving to the 787, the 320neo and the 320ceo and we’re getting rid of everything else,” Frederico Pedreira, Avianca’s chief operating officer, told FlightGlobal during a 7 December interview in Bogota.
Avianca will keep a few A319s as backup for scheduled services and charters, but will otherwise move forward with a more uniform fleet that will simplify the airline’s maintenance operations, Pedreira says. The company has orders for 88 new A320s through 2030.
Following a broad trend among Latin American carriers, Avianca is transitioning to a low-cost business model in the wake of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020, when Covid-19-driven travel bans grounded fleets across the region.
The recovering airline has expanded its network to include 67 destinations in Latin America, the Caribbean and North America, with 22 routes introduced in 2022, and is also pursuing tie-ups with three fellow Latin Amerian carriers – Gol, Sky Airlines and Viva Air…
