In the past few days, the Colombian low-cost airline Viva has renewed its brand and liveries. The company shortened its name from Viva Air to just Viva and received a brand new A320neo with new colors. Let’s investigate further.

Why the change in the brand?

Viva turned nine years old recently. The low-cost company has grown a lot since the launch of operations out of Medellin International Airport. Now, it is a consolidated airline in Colombia and Peru; it is also planning to turn into a sort of low-cost hub-and-spoke carrier in South America.

The airline has big plans, recently launching flights to Mexico and the US. Plus, it is also seeking new routes to countries like Argentina.

While putting all these plans into motion, Viva also decided to launch a new brand and livery, plus shorten its name. During a webinar at CAPA’s June live event, Viva’s CEO, Felix Antelo, explained,

“Many of the plans that we have were supposed to be executed at this time last year; that included the rebranding and the new website for the airline. So now we have this new plane with this new image, which is completely different.”

Indeed, it is different. Viva’s old colors were red, blue, and yellow. This new plane is primarily yellow. Felix Antelo said this color would help people differentiate Viva from local competitors in Colombia and Peru.

He added that the new livery is fresh, young, disruptive, and blends nicely with the fancy blue on the letters.

Viva website
Viva launched a new website. Photo: Viva

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New website as well

In the last few weeks, Viva has also launched a brand new website. Viva is already having good results from this action, said Felix Antelo.

The traffic to the new website has increased by 50%, and the conversion rate has gone up by more than 40%, he added.

Moreover, the company is planning on launching a new app in the next week. Viva’s CEO said,

“That’s going to be communicated next week. Now, Viva is a brand that it’s short, uplifting, easy to understand in Spanish and English. We’re delighted.”

Viva Air Colombia
These were Viva's old colors and brand. Photo: Getty Images.

How’s the recovery going for Viva?

Colombia is shaping up to have a V-shaped recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite political unrest. Viva has had a particularly good bounce back in the last few months.

By March 2021, the airline was already operating 20% more seats than in 2019. So far, Viva has carried 1.3 million passengers, only 13% below its 2019 levels. It has leveled up with LATAM Colombia, and both are battling for second place in the country.

Felix Antelo said that Viva’s decisive actions, trying to stimulate the market, have been critical to the recovery. When the carrier saw a stall in Colombia due to the political unrest in the country, it took out domestic seats and put them on international routes, for instance.

Viva also took advantage of medical tourism. The carrier put extra capacity on routes to Miami so that passengers could get their COVID-19 vaccines in the US.

For the next few weeks, Viva expects a more stable situation. The airline hopes for a good high season between July and August, with an increase in demand.

Do you like Viva’s new colors and brand? Let us know in the comments.