At the Annual Aviation Excellence Awards held in Abu Dhabi, CAPA- Center for Aviation recognized Avianca as "Airline Turnaround of the Year", rewarding the reinvention of its business model, its remarkable recovery in the last three years since its restructuring, as well as its excellent operational results and now being part of a larger aviation group in Latin America.
Adrian Neuhauser, CEO of Avianca said: “Avianca's turnaround has been the result of the hard work and commitment of each and every one of our 13.000 employees; the trust of our investors, who have bestowed on us their capital and allowed us to build and empower a world-class management team to reinvent one of the world's longest-lived airlines; the support of our partners, including travel agencies, equipment manufacturers, lessors, suppliers, airports and authorities; and, of course, the loyalty and commitment of our passengers, who every day put their travel in our hands. We are grateful to all of them for their key role in our success and look forward to continuing to work together for many years to come. A special thanks to CAPA for this recognition, which is tremendously meaningful to our management team as we leave behind our years of restructuring."
Likewise, CAPA pointed up that, after the restructuring, Avianca emerged as a more agile and focused company, with substantially reduced debt levels, attracting new investments and with a transformed operating model to be competitive on routes within the Americas while retaining part of its differential focus on long-haul routes.
Finally, CAPA recognized the collaborative work between Avianca and GOL under Abra Group, a broader strategy that will allow them to better compete in Latin America, and combine Avianca's broad connectivity in Colombia, Central America and Ecuador, as the main airline, with GOL's leadership in the Brazilian market, the largest in the region.
