The Colombian national airline Avianca will invest $473 million to increase its fleet of 16 new family aircraft A320with the aim of increasing the number of routes offered, its managing director Adrian Neuhauser said on Thursday.
Avianca will lease 14 planes Airbus A320neo and two planes A320 CEO to increase its daily flights on domestic routes by almost 25 percent, from 600 to 750. Neuhaser, at a news conference in Bogota, Colombia, called the increase of nearly 1 million weekly seats a “unprecedented growth” in the history of the airline. “The resources needed to finance the incorporation of these aircraft come from our available liquidity and the additional debt we incur on lease.”completed Neuhaser.
The 16 aircraft will join the Avianca fleet between October and the end of December. The number of Avianca employees will also increase by approximately 1,200 people. Some of the new recruits will come from Viva Aira recently defunct Colombian low-cost airline thatAvianca had sought to buy out before pulling out of the deal, citing conditions imposed by Colombia’s civil aviation regulator.
Avianca has a fleet of around a hundred aircraft (excluding subsidiaries), which includes 8 Airbus A319s, 89 Airbus A320s (including 23 neo) and 14 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
