Colombian national carrier Avianca will almost double capacity between Bogota and the Spanish city of Barcelona from this month as it launches three additional weekly rotations on the route. The new flights, from December 17, 2014, will increase frequencies from four a week to a daily schedule, all operated by an Airbus A330-200.

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The airline has been offering a service on the Bogota – Barcelona route since June 2006 and has been increasing capacity as passenger demand has risen. The flight was originally only served on a weekly basis, complementing the airline’s daily flights linking Bogota to the Spanish capital, Madrid, but was boosted to the current four times weekly schedule from December 2008.

An estimated 76,000 passengers flew on the route in the first nine months of this year, up 10.1 per cent on the same period last year, with Avianca reporting average loads of more than 85 per cent. Our analysis, below, highlights that around 36.7 per cent of this demand on this route is local traffic, with the greatest share, 55.3 per cent, connecting in the Colombian capital to or from the wider Avianca network across the Americas.

Data provided by

Avianca is currently making final preparations for the arrival of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliners which will debut on its routes to Europe in the first half of 2015. Its first aircraft is currently completing final testing and is due for delivery in the next two weeks.

Speaking to Routesonline earlier this year at Routes Americas in San Salvador, El Salvador, the airline’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer, Estuardo Ortiz, confirmed the new generational airliner will replace its A330-200s on its intercontinental network.

“We plan to initially deploy the aircraft on familiarisation flights to close by markets such as Lima and Buenos Aires but will eventually use them on our routes to Europe to Madrid and Barcelona in Spain and our new route to London Heathrow in the UK,” he said.

Colombia is one of the world’s most promising economies. As the balance of economic growth shifts from the developed world to emerging markets, leading economies are forgeing new connections in order to remain an attractive place to invest and do business. Colombia is part of a new class of growing economies called CIVETS – Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa - which are characterised by high prospects for growth in the coming decades.