Advertisement Video : New Avianca A330 (AV) Colombia

3 décembre 2009

Advertisement Video : New Avianca A330 (AV) Colombia

IATA AV	ICAO AVA	Callsign AVIANCA

Founded

June 14, 1940

Hubs

El Dorado International Airport

Focus cities

José María Córdova Int'l Airport
Ernesto Cortissoz Int'l Airport
Alfonso Bonilla Aragón Int'l Airport
Rafael Núñez Int'l Airport
Miami International Airport
John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport

Frequent flyer program

AeroGal
Capital Airlines
Helicol
OceanAir
SAM
TACA (and its subsidiaries)
Tampa Cargo
TurbServ
VarigLog
VIP

Fleet size

58^* (+73 orders, 28 options)
^*Only include all Avianca and SAM fleet.

Destinations

49^*
^*Only include all Avianca and SAM destinations.

Company slogan

The Airline of Colombia
First Airline of the Americas
Things Are Happening Here (2005)
Gladly (2009)

Parent company

Holdco Holding Ltd.

Headquarters

Bogotá, D.C. (Colombia)

Key people

Germán Efromovich
Fabio Villegas R.
Juan Emilio Posada E.

Website

www.avianca.com

SCADTA (1919 - 1940)

The airline traces its history back to December 5 1919, in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. Colombians Ernesto Cortissoz (the first President of the Airline), Rafael Palacio, Cristóbal Restrepo, Jacobo Correa and Aristides Noguera and Germans Werner Kämerer, Stuart Hosie and Alberto Tietjen founded the Colombo-German Company, called Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transporte Aéreo or SCADTA. The company accomplished its first flight between Barranquilla and the nearby town of Puerto Colombia, aboard a Junkers F.13, wherein 57 pieces of mail were transported; the flight was piloted by German Helmuth Von Krohn. This and another aircraft of the same type were completely mechanically constructed monoplanes, the engines of which had to be modified in order to be able to efficiently operate in the climatic conditions of the country; there were nine aircraft in the fleet with a total range of 850 km (525 Mi) and could carry up to four passengers and two crewmen. Due to the topographic characteristics of the country and the lack of airports at the time, two seaplanes were adapted to the Junkers aircraft, in order for them to accomplish water landings in the rivers of different towns. Using these floats, Helmuth Von Krohn was able to perform the first inland flight over Colombia on October 20 1920, following the course of the Magdalena River; the flight took eight hours and had to make four emergency landings in the water.

Soon after the vision of the founding group had become a reality, German scientist and philanthropist Peter von Bauer became interested in the airline and contributed general knowledge, capital and a tenth aircraft for the company, as well as obtaining concessions from the Colombian government to operate the country's airmail transportation division using the airline. This new contract allowed SCADTA to thrive in a new frontier of aviation. By the mid 1920s, SCADTA, having overcome many obstacles, inaugurated its first international routes that initially covered destinations in Venezuela and the United States. Regretfully, in 1924, the aircraft that both Ernesto Cortissoz and Helmuth Von Krohn were piloting, crashed into an area currently known as Bocas de Ceniza in Barranquilla, causing their deaths. Despite this tragedy, the airline continued to thrive under the guidance of German Peter von Braun until the early 1940s, where circumstances related to the outbreak of World War II forced him to sell his shares in the airline to the US-owned Pan American World Airways.

National Airways of Colombia (1940 - 1994)

On June 14 1940, in the city of Barranquilla, SCADTA, under ownership by United States businessmen, merged with Colombian Air Carrier SACO, (acronym of Servicio Aéreo Colombiano), forming the new Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia S.A. or Avianca. Five Colombians participated in this act: (Rafael María Palacio, Jacobo A. Corea, Cristobal Restrepo, Aristides Noguera) and German citizens Alberto Teitjen, Werner Kaemerer and Stuart Hosie, while the post of first President of Avianca was filled by Martín del Corral.

There had been decades of dedicated work and contribution to Colombia's development through actions, among which the following may be highlighted:

In September 1920, with Fritz Hammer as pilot, Wilhem Schnurrbush as copilot and Stuart Hosie as a passenger, SCADTA accomplished its first flight between Barranquilla and Puerto Berrío.
On October 19 of that same year, Helmuth Von Krohn accomplished the first flight between Barranquilla and Girardot and by 1921 routes between Barranquilla, Girardot and Neiva were established.
In 1922, SCADTA began to provide airmail service.
In August 1922, General Pedro Nel Ospina, then President of Colombia, used a SCADTA aircraft to conduct official business for the first time.
On July 19 1923, to save the country from bankruptcy, SCADTA transported a gold and currency load from Puerto Berrío to Girardot.
On July 12 1928, a SCADTA Junkers F.13, commanded by Pilot Herbert Boy, crossed the Equator.
On July 23 1929, regular routes between Girardot and Bogotá were established.
The cost of the first SCADTA air tickets were as follows: from Bogotá to Barranquilla, COP $75; from Bogotá to Cartagena, COP $85; from Bogotá to Cartago, COP $35; and from Bogotá to Santiago de Cali, COP $50.
On July 16 1931, SCADTA established the first mail service between Bogotá and New York City.
In 1937, the airline acquired 10 Boeing 247 twin-engine aircraft, extending its domestic routes.
By October 1939, Avianca acquired the first Douglas DC-3 aircraft arriving in the country, flying at the then-incredible speed of 200 miles per hour.
Beginning in 1946, Avianca inaugurated flights to Quito, Lima, Panama City, Miami, New York City and finally Europe, using Douglas DC-4 and C-54 Skymaster aircraft,.
In 1951, Avianca acquired the Lockheed 749 Constellation and the 1049 Super Constellation aircraft, the biggest and fastest at the time.
A grand feat in Colombian commercial aviation was also conducted by Avianca in 1956, when the airline committed to take the Colombian delegation, that was to participate in the Melbourne Olympic Games in Australia. There were 61 hours of continuous operation, with only one stop for refueling allowed.
Four years later, in 1961, Avianca leased two Boeing 707 aircraft, to operate its international routes and on November 2, 1961, it acquired its own Boeing 720s, baptizing them with the names, Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander.
The year 1976 was an important one for Avianca, becoming the first Latin American airline to continuously operate a Boeing 747. Three years later, it started operations with another 747, this time a 747 Combi, mixing cargo and passenger operations.
In 1981, the possibilities for in-ground service for passengers in Bogotá expanded, thanks to the modern air terminal that Avianca commissioned: Avianca’s Air Bridge. The new terminal originally operated routes to Miami, New York City, Santiago de Cali, Medellín, Pasto and Montería.
By 1990, Avianca had acquired the most modern aircraft in the world: two Boeing B767-200ERs, which were baptized with the names of Cristóbal Colón and Américo Vespucio.

[Avianca's System (1994 - 2002)

In 1994, a strategic alliance was established to merge three of the most important enterprises of the aeronautical sector of Colombia: Avianca, the regional carrier SAM and the helicopter operator Helicol, which brought life to Avianca’s new system of operations. This system offered specialized services in Cargo (Avianca Cargo) and postal services, as well as the most modern fleet in Latin America made up of: Boeing B767-200, Boeing B767-300, Boeing B757–200, McDonnell Douglas MD83, Fokker 50 and Bell helicopters.

This new system covered the following destinations:

In Colombia: Bogotá, Arauca, Armenia, Santiago de Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Santa Marta, Leticia, Manizales, Montería, Pasto, Pereira, Popayán, Riohacha, San Andrés, Valledupar, Providencia, Capurganá, Bahía Solano, Nuquí, Caucasia and Chigorodó.
In South America: Quito, Guayaquil, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Chile, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Lima and Caracas.
In North America: Los Angeles, Newark, New York City, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Mexico City.
In Europe: Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt am Main and London.
In Central America and the Caribbean: Panama, San José, San Juan, Curaçao, Santo Domingo and Aruba.

By 1996, Avianca Postal Services evolved into Deprisa, providing express mail services through its products Deprisa and Deprisa Empresarial, traditional mail, certified mail, shipment airport-to-airport and P.O. boxes.

On December 10 1998, Avianca announced the inception of a new "connections center" in Bogotá, offering around 6,000 possible weekly connecting flights and an increased number of frequencies, schedules and destinations, taking advantage of the privileged geographical location of the country’s capital, for the benefit of Colombian and international travellers between South America, Europe and North America.

In addition to its Avianca Connection, and alliance partnerships, Avianca offers frequent flyer partnerships with the following airlines:

Delta Air Lines

Incidents and accidents

The airline suffered a few incidents during the 1980s and early 1990s. Many were caused by warring gangs, under the assumption that a member of a rival gang was aboard. The deadliest of those incidents was Avianca Flight 203, which was bombed in 1989, following orders from Pablo Escobar to kill presidential candidate César Gaviria Trujillo. In the aftermath, it was found that Gaviria had not boarded the aircraft. Only one successful bombing has occurred in the airline's history, while most other gang related incidents were related to hijackings or shootings on board. In most hijackings, all passengers and crew members, unaffiliated with the hijacker's cause, were immediately released.

On 26 April 1990, M-19 presidential candidate Carlos Pizarro was gunned down during a domestic Avianca flight.

Other incidents include:

On 21 January 1960, Avianca Flight 671, a Lockheed L-1049E, crashed and burned on landing at Montego Bay International Airport in Jamaica, killing 37 aboard.
On 15 January 1966, Avianca Flight 4 crashed shortly after takeoff from Cartagena-Crespo. The cause was determined as maintenance problems, possibly compounded by pilot error.
Avianca Flight 011, a Boeing B747-200 that crashed onto a mountain, just short of landing at Barajas Airport in Madrid, in November 1983 had 181 fatalities. The cause was determined to be pilot error.
Avianca Flight 410, a Boeing B727 domestic flight, which crashed into low mountains near Cúcuta - Norte de Santander, Colombia, after take-off on 17 of March 1988, killing all 143 on board. It was determined that pilot error was also the cause of this crash, in a situation similar to that of Avianca Flight 011, five years earlier.
On 25 January 1990, Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing B707-321 jet en route from Bogotá to New York City via Medellín, crashed in the town of Cove Neck, New York, after running out of fuel while in a holding pattern, awaiting landing at New York's Kennedy Airport, killing 73 of the 158 people aboard. There was much controversy surrounding this crash. Also, air traffic controllers may have contributed to the disaster, by not providing sufficient information regarding poor weather conditions around John F. Kennedy International Airport at the time and maintaining the jet in a holding pattern for too long, despite being told that Flight 52 was low on fuel.