The latest waves of COVID-19 have not impacted the recovery of the Colombian aviation industry, according to a snapshot published by Cirium. The number of daily flights operated by Colombian carriers has remained above pre-pandemic 2019 levels since January 12, 2022, and even stood up at 9% on May 3. Let’s investigate further.

Colombia’s recovery

At the beginning of 2022, the latest Omicron-driven wave of COVID-19 impacted the global aviation industry. Some countries recovering their pre-pandemic passenger levels, like Mexico, saw their recoveries stall in the first quarter of the year.

Nonetheless, Colombia continued posting strong recovery numbers, fueled by the domestic market and its four leading carriers, Avianca, LATAM, Viva, and EasyFly.

The last time Colombian carriers’ recovery was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic was in July 2021, during the Delta-variant driven wave, said Cirium. “Since then, the gap in daily flights has generally been narrowing.”

A look into Colombia’s capacity

Among the top four Colombian carriers in May, Avianca’s daily flights increased around 16% versus the start of the year. Nonetheless, compared to 2019 levels, Avianca is operating 16.6% fewer flights (although it has recovered nearly 100% of its seating capacity, which can be attributed to its Airbus A320 densification process).

Viva Colombia’s number of daily flights was down 4% in May compared to January, although the airline has heavily increased its number of flights compared to 2019. This month, Viva has 94.7% more flights and seats than 2019.

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EasyFly’s number of daily flights was up 17% versus the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, daily flights for LATAM in Colombia were down 24% compared to January, Cirium said.

In terms of active aircraft, the four Colombian carriers were storing approximately 30% of their fleet. This number includes 26% of the Airbus A320-family aircraft in the country (Avianca, Viva, and LATAM), 13 of the 40 ATR-family aircraft (Avianca and EasyFly), three of the 13 Boeing 787 jets (Avianca), and six of the eight A330/A340-family aircraft (Avianca).

Besides these four carriers, Colombia also has domestic commercial services from SATENA (the State airline), Wingo (the low-cost branch of Panama’s Copa Airlines), and newcomer Ultra Air.

How about the number of passengers?

Let’s take a look at the passenger numbers in Colombia, employing data released by the country’s civil aviation authorities and updated until March 2022.

In 2022, the airlines operating domestic and international passengers in Colombia have carried 10.8 million passengers. That number was a 13% increase compared to the 2019 levels when Colombia had 9.6 million travelers. The South American country is among the few (if not the only) market to have fully rebounded in terms of passengers.

Domestically, Colombia has had 7.7 million passengers so far in 2022, increasing by 52% the number of travelers. That’s an amazing recovery and growth!

Meanwhile, the international market still remains below 2019 levels. Colombia has had 3.1 million travelers versus 3.5 million three years ago, an 11% decrease.