Interview: Juan Diego Zapata, Sales Director of Grupo Viva

In recent weeks, Viva unveiled its new image and a renewed commercial strategy that aims to the growth of the airline inside and outside Colombia. Aviacionline spoke with Juan Diego Zapata, Grupo Viva Sales Director, to learn a little more about the projections and results of the airline.

Aviacionline: Today we can say that Viva has already reactivated 100% of its operations after the 2020 stoppage caused by the pandemic. What was the secret to getting the airline to operate at its peak today?

Zapata: At Viva we transformed and saw opportunities in the changes imposed by the pandemic, where the resilience and commitment of the entire human team were key to getting through the crisis. In that sense, since the moment began, our efforts focused on adapting to a new way of flying. For this reason, we became the first airline in the country to obtain three biosafety certifications, we ensure that we maintain our high standards of punctuality, and we optimize resources thanks to our model.
The strategy that supports our good results consists of permanently seeking operational efficiencies that allow us to reduce costs, hand in hand with our ‘Low Cost’ model, which has proven to be our best and correct ally.

Our commitment to always having low prices for travelers, a renewed fleet and attributes such as punctuality, flight experiences and a growing route network, confirmed this last year that more and more travelers prefer the advantages it offers them an airline like Viva.

– In the first six months of the year, the airline transported more than two million passengers on almost 15,000 flights. Can it be said that these results met the proposed expectations?

– The reactivation has been very positive for Viva. In 2020 we position ourselves as the second most important airline in the country with a growth of 15 to 24% of market share. Today we continue to bet on air inclusion, with more than two million passengers transported and we hope to close the year with an average of 6.5 million passengers mobilized on seven international routes and 26 domestic routes operated in the country. We are making steady progress in our international expansion plan and we invite Colombians to fly to more, to more destinations, paying less.

– So far in 2021, Viva has incorporated seven new national and international routes. Are new routes expected for the second half of the year?

– Our goal is to continue connecting Colombia with more destinations inside and outside the country. That is why within our growth strategy we plan to open 15 new international routes in the next three years, including North, South America and the Caribbean.
Incorporating new routes is an objective for which we work every day and at the moment in which we make the decision of new routes to operate, it will be duly communicated.

– Colombia is currently preparing for the arrival of new air operators who will focus their business model on the low-cost format. How does the airline plan to maintain its leadership position in the market after the arrival of new competitors?

– We consider competition as a positive element insofar as it contributes to continuing to energize the market. However, at Viva we focus on our work, on continuing to offer better services and rates to our travelers and betting on new connection destinations inside and outside the country.

Viva is a Low-Cost airline with differentials in price, punctuality, proximity and experience that continues to transform the airline industry in Colombia. Today we are a benchmark for punctuality in the country, with a 93% average punctuality on our itineraries.

We have the most modern fleet in the country and the third in America, which will continue to grow with the order of new aircraft that we placed at the Airbus factory in France, which will arrive in full by 2023. This, added to our extensive network of routes and the best average rates in the market, with which we have a very large advantage and that is the lowest unit cost, which ranges between 40% to 50% compared to other airlines, make Viva one of the leading airlines in the country and the region.