Avianca Airlines Re...
 

Avianca Airlines Rebrands, Goes Lowercase

33 Posts
10 Users
0 Reactions
204 Views
Posts: 39796
Admin
Topic starter
(@lucky)
Member
Joined: 13 years ago
[#15625]
wpf-cross-image

Latin American mega airline Avianca has had a tough several years. The airline has gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and has made a lot of difficult changes. The airline has now revealed a rebranding, including a new brand vision…

Continue reading: Avianca Airlines Rebrands, Goes Lowercase

Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.


32 Replies
32 Replies
(@Mike O.)
Joined: 7 years ago

Posts: 1049

I wouldn't call that a rebrand, but rather a refresh. A rebrand would be something like American from the 1960s and present.


Reply
 John
(@John)
Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 42

I hope a part of their refresh is their phone agents . Their customer service is lacking. Good luck if there’s an irrops


Reply
(@MSLPflier)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 3

Avianca should rather focus on revamping their customer service image all over Latin America and the US, instead of making these unneccesary tweaks to their brand. I recently flew SFOSAL with them, and SALOAK on Volaris, and honestly, nowadays there is no differentiation of service whatsoever between Volaris who is openly a LCC carrier, and avianca who are still trying to come out as an actual LCC as they are now. Also, I must say their new slim seats and seat pitch are HORRENDOUS, even for a person with a shorter frame of 5'7'. Returned home with a lower back pain that didn't go away for two days after returning.


Reply
Diamond
(@david-7)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 1023

The greatest reinvention of an airline in the history of aviation?

Maybe the greatest exaggeration of a airline rebranding in the history of aviation.


Reply
(@Chris)
Joined: 7 years ago

Posts: 80

Truly groundbreaking consulting work from the MBA brain-trust. Money well spent, I’m sure.


Reply
(@Stevie MIA)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 77

Let's be honest here, there's nothing mega about Avianca, with or without an upppercase A. Avianca is not what it used to be and falls short behind LATAM and even Brazilian carriers. This is just another attempt at gaining public validation and washing up their tainted image, this brand has suffered a huge discredit after their Viva Air flop, their Chapter 11 and their failed transition to the LCC hybrid model. Avianca is no longer prestigious so it has to resort to this type of image washing in order to bring in passengers. Their customer service is widely criticized by almost everyone I know, their domestic prices are shameful for the kind of service they offer, they wanna play the hybrid carrrier card with this rebrand because they have totally tainted their reputation in Colombia and LaTam, their seats suck big time, their agents are often unprofessional, their call center is a nightmare. They've been trying to solidify this brand for too long and it hasn't paid off, nothing seems to work. Their full service carrier premium aproach after the TACA merging was useless, they tried it with the flexible carrier aproach and they failed. Now they try to emerge as a hybrid "flying for all" carrier but it looks desperate and tacky. The truth is avianca can waste their money on cheap looking rebrands as much as they want to but they won't ever top LATAM or Volaris, it's sad and desparate.
Avianca is often blasted and ridiculed on social media for their braindead marketing and bland promotion, passengers are tired of their antics, this is just another way to cheapen up their brand and attract the low cost passengers but the truth is LCC is not realistic on the colombian domestic market, these type of passegers are not even travelli g now that there's no competition, not even Wingo is a true low cost carrier, avianca is just trying to allude to the Milenial and Gen Z travellers but they're not stupid, they won't fall for this. Passengers only flight avianca because there's no other company that does the job, thank god we have foreign carriers for international travel.

Ben I read your blog from time to time and I enjoy it, I can assure you avianca has lost its appeal and core market in Colombia, people only fly them at super high prices because it's the only airline left, sometimes you have no choice, Latam Colombia has better on ground service but they don't have as many frequencies so most passengers are forced to fly avianca and bear their bad customer service on ground and airbone.

This rebranding campaign hasn't had the reception they expected, customers on social media are already mocking the company and local media paid dust to this announcement, good way to throw money to the bin avianca. This is just a way of cutting spendings on paint maintenence, it's so ridiculous to see them ditch the orange and throw a lowercase A just to stay relevant.


Reply
Diamond
(@stogieguy7-2)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 277

Wow, I never realized just how many hours are spent by MBA program students to closely study horse and bull excrement. Because that's what this announcement consisted of.


Reply
 RF
Diamond
(@rf)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 594

Avianca has been operating like a lowercase airline for many years now. Service and soft product was just bad.


Reply
 Zach
(@Zach)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 1

Haha. They are trying too hard. Their prices are outrageous.


Reply
Diamond
(@leigh)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 0

Pretty funny:)


Reply
Diamond
(@leigh)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 0

I haven't flown them because I've been oneworld Emerald forever....but, I like it. Small change, sure, but nicely welcoming.


Reply
(@JC Edwards)
Joined: 8 years ago

Posts: 25

I like Avianca... oops, avianca. Yes, "the Airbus A320 is the backbone of avianca’s fleet, and the airline reconfigured these jets in an all-economy layout, with 180 seats; this is 20% more seats than before." I can tell, because the cabin feels cramped. Seats do not recline.


Reply
 Ted
(@Ted)
Joined: 11 years ago

Posts: 122

Wow - I can't believe some marketing person gets paid actual money to come up with crap like this. They change from a capital "A" to a lower case "a" - Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.


Reply
 XPL
Diamond
(@xpl)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 210

Well, one of the challenges of Avianca (their marketing fools can write it lower case a if they want) is that it is two airlines in one: a Colombian domestic airline, and a Latin American regional, with very different expectations and needs in those different markets. I had high hopes that the Colombian government would let Avianca rescue Viva Air in part because the acquisition could be run as a separate domestic unit and let the Avianca brand focus on regional traffic. Alas, Petro & Co. didn't see it that way. Colombian domestic aviation is the worse for it, but I'd put the blame for that on the politicians, not on an airline that had a near death experience less than two years ago.

All that said, Avianca is better regarded outside Colombia. Not that it's awesome, but it's better than most of the alternatives. En el país de los ciegos, el tuerto es rey.


Reply
 XPL
Diamond
(@xpl)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 210

Fly an LCC, get an LCC experience. No surprise there. The Latin American market wants cheap fares, not legacy level service. Indeed, that's why legacy Avianca went bankrupt in 2021.


Reply
 XPL
Diamond
(@xpl)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 210

I too have flown both Avianca and Volaris, and I agree that they are pretty similar. No surprise there though: they are both quite open about being LCCs. Their seats and legroom are about the same too, so dunno about your back (and I'm taller than you are).

But "customer service image", seriously? Didn't you just acknowledge that we are talking about LCCs? You want service, pay for a full service carrier. UA, DL, and AA could have all flown you there.


Reply
(@Ice Machine)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 2

I flew Avianca recently and hated it. Despite the 180 seat layout they are still selling the front as “plus” and “comfort.” It’s the tightest fit I’ve ever experienced on a plane. You just get the feeling you’re being nickel and dimed at every point in the process. They even sell ad space on their seatbacks. Just a horrible way to fly. I’ll be going on Latam every time.


Reply
(@Eskimo)
Joined: 9 years ago

Posts: 6145

Here’s how Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser DIDN'T describes the rebranding (and the quite is worth reading, since it really sums up the logic of this change):

We just paid a few hundred million to hire consultants and media agencies to tell us to change the A to lower case.
We're going to spend another few hundred million to redo every logo visible.
Who knows 😉 if there is any kickbacks or bonuses involved.


Reply
(@MSLPflier)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 3

And so could Copa!


Reply
(@iamhere)
Joined: 10 years ago

Posts: 1879

so what....


Reply
(@Stevie MIA)
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 77

Look at her make-up it's terrible!, lol.


Reply
Diamond
(@benjaminguttery)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 586

So a legacy carrier became an LCC. Cool. Don't care. Smart things will probably happen to LATAM soon.....I mean latam.


Reply
(@Taylor)
Joined: 6 years ago

Posts: 4

I second the initiative of an all economy aircraft; the business and executive aka first class is subsidized by the rest of the fleet and all that vip/class system has get away for too long… if you disagree maybe you should consider an all-vip class plane and pay for the cost of such flight


Reply
 PEEd
(@PEEd)
Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 3

Fly avianca if you enjoy nightmare customer service, no one answers any of their contact service lines. Missed a domestic leg of an International flight (Medellin/Bogota-to-LosAngeles)and they dropped my paid reservation because I didn't protect the reservation. So who the hell was I supposed to call to walk me through that??? When you cann't even get anyone to help you on issues like that. And yes, had to purchase another ticket and they put me in Wamos - yeah looks like a fix to me


Reply
 Jack
(@Jack)
Joined: 12 years ago

Posts: 485

Reminds me of when the Dallas fat boys at Southwestern Bell rebranded AT&T as at&t. Honey, I shrunk the company. And screwed the shareholders.


Reply
(@Fabian)
Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 4

I am flying with avianca for 15 years and a Dimond member for 11 years .The airline was great before they transform to low cost .Now the service it's horrible ,customer service (not Service)they want to charge for everything ,may be soon they charge to use the restroom with a token.They bleim to pandemia ,they need to bleim to the past president doing nothing for the people and the airline.He got the 7.000.000 bonus and see you later everyone


Reply
(@Fabian)
Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 4

exactly,we'll say it


Reply
(@Fabian)
Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 4

exactly no recline,sardine it's the word


Reply
Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 1

Avianca is the worst airline I have ever experienced. Charging for water on international flight is horrible and to top it all off you need to have a credit card to buy it? El salvador has many seniors flying who do not carry credit cards and you won't help them because of lack of CC? That's awful. You can have your rebranding you should have spent all that money retraining your staff


Reply
(@reg57)
Joined: 5 years ago

Member
Posts: 0

Wow, adrian!


Reply
(@roger)
Joined: 7 years ago

Posts: 96

Avianca needs to get out of Star Alliance for starters since COPA appears to be the favored Latin Partner of STAR. Avianca or the New avianca would be better aligned to partner with GOL Brazil and possibly a revamped Aerolinas Argentina and cover the South American continent with ONEWORLD aspirations. LATAM leaving OW really created chaos within South America but then again no one in OW was willing to toss LATAM a financial lifeline when they were struggling because they didn't feel they were worth saving. personally I never cared for LATAM after they comined with TAM....garbage and good riddance.


Reply
Diamond
(@jetbluefanboy)
Joined: 4 years ago

Member
Posts: 0

Based on what I've been hearing about Avianca in the past couple of years, this isn't surprising in the slightest. From what I gather they were an LCC in all but name. All they've done is publicly admit that they're a low cost carrier.
They've also made their livery even blander now. Maybe they wanted to make it stand out at MAD? I'm kidding of course, but, as someone who visits that airport every few months, I have to say that it's incredible how well an Avianca 787 blends into the IB crowd at Terminal 4S.


Reply