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…
In this post:
Avianca Airlines becomes avianca airlines
Avianca Airlines has announced that it will rebrand as avianca airlines. That’s right, after 100+ years in business, the airline is ditching uppercase letters. From a marketing perspective, companies choose to lowercase names when they want to appear more casual, approachable, and friendly, and that’s exactly what avianca is trying to do here.
The airline describes the new brand as “combining the best of its over 100 years of flying with the practicality and flexibility of the modern low-cost world,” and states that flying “has ceased to be for a few and is now for everyone.”
Here’s how Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser describes the rebranding (and the quite is worth reading, since it really sums up the logic of this change):
“The more than 180 days that our planes spent on the ground due to the COVID-19 pandemic were dark days. We knew that our airline was at risk of disappearing, as was the connectivity of the countries and regions where we operated and the jobs we generated. But it was also during that time that we saw that it was not only possible but also necessary to achieve a different avianca, one that is more open, closer, more accessible, and with more for everyone. After nearly two years, that new avianca is here.”
“This is perhaps the greatest reinvention of an airline in the history of aviation. That’s why today we say hello to avianca in lowercase and goodbye to the uppercase ‘A’ of the past. This is a brand that honors our history and at the same time represents what we are today, a renewed avianca: friendly, agile, accessible, attentive and cheerful. An avianca that looks you in the eye and calls you by your name. An avianca where everyone is welcome and where the sky belongs to all.”
Okay, perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that this is “the greatest reinvention of an airline in the history of aviation,” but I think the general message is true. The new branding is intended to make the airline feel more approachable and low cost.
While the updated logo has been revealed, this otherwise seems to be a rather mild rebranding. It seems that it’s literally only the logo that’s changing, and there’s nothing else to accompany this. I’m curious when airplanes will be repainted — I suspect it’ll just happen when they would otherwise be repainted.
How the avianca airlines business model has transformed
What exactly has avianca airlines done in the past few years to simplify its business and make it more sustainable?
- 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
- The airline has simplified its fleet otf 140 aircraf, with just two aircraft types, comprised of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 787
- The airline has simplified its fare bundles — now avianca has four economy fares bundles and one business class fare bundle for Americas flights, and three economy fare bundles and one business class fare bundle for Europe flights
- The airline is adding 26 new routes in 2023, including to eight new destinations
- The airline has done a great job with running a reliable operation, and in September 2023, operated 89.8% of flights on-time, making it the most punctual airline in the world
Bottom line
As part of its transformation, Avianca Airlines is rebranding as avianca airlines, with a new slogan that “the sky belongs to all.” The Star Alliance carrier has transformed into more of a streamlined and low cost carrier in recent years, reconfiguring planes with more seats, eliminating business class, and simplifying its fleet. To go along with these changes, the airline also wants to be branded in a more approachable way.
What do you make of the new avianca airlines branding?
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...
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.
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...
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.
Wow, adrian!
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
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
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.
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
So a legacy carrier became an LCC. Cool. Don't care. Smart things will probably happen to LATAM soon.....I mean latam.
so what....
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.
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...
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
exactly,we'll say it
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.
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.
Look at her make-up it's terrible!, lol.
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.
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.
exactly no recline,sardine it's the word
I haven't flown them because I've been oneworld Emerald forever....but, I like it. Small change, sure, but nicely welcoming.
Haha. They are trying too hard. Their prices are outrageous.
Avianca has been operating like a lowercase airline for many years now. Service and soft product was just bad.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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.
Truly groundbreaking consulting work from the MBA brain-trust. Money well spent, I’m sure.
The greatest reinvention of an airline in the history of aviation?
Maybe the greatest exaggeration of a airline rebranding in the history of aviation.
Pretty funny:)
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...
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.
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.
And so could Copa!
I hope a part of their refresh is their phone agents . Their customer service is lacking. Good luck if there’s an irrops
I wouldn't call that a rebrand, but rather a refresh. A rebrand would be something like American from the 1960s and present.