The Colombian low-cost startup Ultra Air is close to starting flying. Yesterday, the airline announced that it has sent its first Airbus A320 aircraft to the paint shop. Additionally, the new operator has already announced which routes it has received authorization to serve, both domestically and internationally. Let’s investigate further.

The coming of Ultra Air

Ultra Air is a Colombian startup led by the former Interjet CEO, William Shaw. The objective is to launch a new low-cost carrier in the South American market, lowering the airfares across several destinations.

According to Shaw, the airline will start flying early in 2022 as it goes along its certification process in Colombia. Regarding its fleet, the startup has also moved forward.

In a post on Instagram, Ultra Air announced yesterday,

“Our first Airbus A320 airplanes are entering the paint shop. We are closer to obtaining our air operator certificate; we’re moving forward to finish this process as soon as possible and, therefore, start providing the Colombian people a new and better alternative to fly.”

In the post, we can see images of an Airbus A320ceo aircraft. Unfortunately, we can’t tell the registration of the plane to find out its history. Hopefully, as time goes forward, we will be able to know more about Ultra Airs’ future fleet.

Ultra Air’s destinations

Ultra Air plans to serve as a low-cost leisure carrier. The airline is aiming to connect several domestic destinations in Colombia as well as some international cities.

According to another post published by the carrier, the Colombian civil aviation authorities approved Ultra Air to serve 15 domestic destinations and nine international.

The international destinations are New York and Miami in the US, Mexico City and Cancun in Mexico, Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, Quito in Ecuador, Lima, Peru, Aruba, and Curazao. Ultra Air would serve these cities from Bogota and Medellin.

Meanwhile, the domestic destinations are Leticia, Pasto, Cali, Pereira, Bogota, Medellin, Bucaramanga, Arauca, Cucuta, Monteria, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Riohacha, and San Andres island.

Once Ultra Air starts flying, it would compete directly with Viva in Medellin. In Bogota, it would face Avianca and LATAM, mainly.

How would Ultra Air’s fleet look like?

Ultra Air will use an all-Airbus A320ceo type of fleet.  The A320 is the most common aircraft in Latin America, extremely popular with low-cost carriers in the region. Other airlines like Volaris, Viva Aerobus, Viva, JetSMART, and even long-gone Interjet have or had A320 fleets.

It is not known with how many aircraft Ultra Air will begin its operations. Nevertheless, we expect Ultra Air to have approximately four to five planes to fly with, similar to what Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos did in Brazil.

The plan is to grow aggressively and have up to 40 aircraft within the first five years of operations, William Shaw has said.

To have an A320 fleet will allow Ultra Air to reduce the average fare in Colombia by 20% and create approximately 36,000 direct jobs, the management has also stated.

Do you want to fly with Ultra Air? What do you think of the airline so far? Let us know in the comments below.