Copa Airlines Colombia

Copa Airlines Colombia

IATA P5/CM* ICAO RPB Callsign AEROREPUBLICA
Founded	23 November 1992 (as AeroRepública) 6 October 2010 (as Copa Airlines Colombia)
Hubs	El Dorado International Airport
Focus cities	Tocumen International Airport Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport
Frequent-flyer program	OnePass (Mileage Plus from 2012)[1]
Airport lounge	Copa Club
Alliance	Star Alliance (mid-2012)
Fleet size	16
Destinations	20
Company slogan	English: Passion for service Spanish: Pasión por el servicio
Parent company	Copa Holdings S.A.
Headquarters	Bogotá, Colombia
Key people	Roberto Junguito (CEO)
Website	Copa Airlines Colombia

AeroRepública S.A., operating as Copa Airlines Colombia,^[2] is an airline based in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the third largest air carrier in Colombia . It operates scheduled services from Bogotá to 11 domestic destinations, Panama, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador as well as charter services to domestic destinations, the United States and the Caribbean. Its main base is El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, with a focus city at José María Córdova International Airport, Medellín.^[3]

History

During the early years of the 90s was immersed in Colombia's economic liberalization policy of President Cesar Gaviria, and although there were many problems and obstacles, under the leadership of Alfonso Avila Velandia who had worked in the airline industry before and Amos Ginor, discussions and negotiations began in 1992 to create Aero Republica, the first airline to be created in Colombia in years. The initiative was echoed and achieved concrete the support of banks and business groups in Colombia and the United States.

The result of this process was the start of operations of AeroRepublica in June 1993 with 727-100 aircraft painted with the colors of the flag of Colombia (yellow, blue and red), initially flying from Bogotá to cities of the Colombian coast as Santa Marta, Cartagena and San Andres. Precisely in Santa Marta accelerated the market significantly, gaining honorable mention by the mayor of the city and the government of Magdalena.

AeroRepublica continued to expand, reaching new cities of country like Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Montería, and Leticia, among others. Just as in Santa Marta, Leticia AeroRepublica arrival meant an important dynamic of the market which resulted in a drop in price very important at the time. Alongside all this, changed its fleet of 727-100 aircraft by McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-30 from Continental Airlines and Alitalia raided while flying in the international market to Havana and other places in charter form.

Despite having a very good safety record, it had in its history only two notable incidents (recorded in Cali on January 8, 2005 and in Santa Marta on July 17, 2007) in which there were no deaths or injuries. During the 90s AeroRepublica had a bad reputation in Colombia due to the constant mechanical problems, punctuality and general disorder that had the Carrier, and as a consequence, some passengers commented that the airline's name was becoming known as "AeroRecocha" referring specifically to these factors. AeroRepublica was then a radical change in their business processes in its image and its fleet, its advertising slogan was "Live the Change" to reflect this. He began to bring their aircraft fleet McDonnell-Douglas MD-80, changed their colors and reorganized its route map, leaving to fly to destinations such as Carthage. All these positive changes were noticed by the public and the nickname "AeroRecocha", which gave to the airline many negative reviews, was withdrawn after these changes were made. Today AeroRepublica has no mechanical problems of timeliness or those who may have an average airline, and has sometimes led these statistics at national level.

The past decade was a great movement in the Colombian Aviation and Copa Airlines of Panama was interested in entering the domestic market by acquiring one of the local airlines, the local airline was AeroRepublica (despite having been involved initially in the auction process by the country's flag carrier, Avianca). With this acquisition came a new series of corporate changes and AeroRepublica fleet. Alfonso Avila Velandia left the presidency of the airline that helped position and instead was aimed at Roberto Junguito, changed new corporate image for a nearly equal to the Cup and started the replacement of the fleet of MD-80 aircraft by making an order of 20 modern Embraer 190, 10 orders for the Boeing 737-800 and taking in 10 of the 18 older Boeing 737-700 from Copa Airlines fleet to their fleet, a process that begun in January 2010 with the departure from service of the last MD-80 of their fleet, after operating this type of aircraft for over 8 years and when the firsts EMB-190 and the two first older Boeing 737-700 from Copa Panama arrived. Anecdotally, in early 2007 AeroRepublica Embraer 190 took a Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín for demonstration, although current regulations an aircraft of that capacity can not operate from this airport.

In addition to this there has been further consolidation in the domestic routes and began expanding internationally again, serving initially at Quito, Caracas and Panama City and other cities, but future projections to other cities including Miami and São Paulo. In August 2010, Aero Republica announced plans to start services to Mexico and Cuba.^[4]

In October 2010, Copa Holdings changed the name from Aero Republica to Copa Airlines Colombia, unifying the brand.^[5]

Destinations

Main article: Copa Airlines Colombia destinations

Fleet

An Aero República Embraer 190 at Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela.

Copa Airlines Colombia fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2010):^[6]

Copa Airlines Colombia Fleet

Aircraft	In Fleet	Orders	Passengers			Notes
			J	Y	Total
Embraer 190AR	2	0		84	94
Embraer 190LR	12	20	0	106	106
Boeing 737-700	2	10	12	112	124
Boeing 737-800	0	10
Total	16	40

Copa Airlines Colombia fleet modernization and expansion plan includes firm orders for 4 additional Embraer 190 aircraft (3 signed from GECAS and 1 from manufacturer), as well as options for 20 additional aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 October 2006, Copa Airlines Colombia announced that it had signed with GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) a lease agreement for an E-190 aircraft to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2007. This agreement increases Copa Airlines Colombia delivery commitments to eight Embraer E-190 aircraft through 2007, three of which will be leased through GECAS and five purchased directly form the manufacturer. In addition to these commitments,Copa Airlines Colombia has options and purchase rights for twenty additional E-190 aircraft through 2011.

OnePass

OnePass is the Copa Airlines Colombia frequent flyer program through a partnership with Continental Airlines. Customers accumulate miles from flight segments they fly through Copa Airlines Colombia, Copa Airlines, Continental Airlines or other partners. OnePass elite tiers are Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite which have benefits such as mileage bonus, priority check-in, priority seats and priority boarding. The airline will terminate its OnePass program by December 31, 2011 and will use United's Mileage Plus frequent flyer program in 2012.^[1]

Codeshare agreements

Copa Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:
(This list does not include Star Alliance airlines)

• AeroMéxico
• Copa Airlines
• Cubana de Aviación
• Gol Transportes Aéreos
• Continental Airlines
• United Airlines
• KLM
• TAME (January 2011)

Incidents and accidents

• On 8 January 2005 an AeroRepública McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft overran the runway at Cali's Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport, Colombia, and the landing gear separated. There were no fatalities among the 6 crew and 164 passengers.^[7]

• On 17 July 2007, AeroRepública flight 7330, an Embraer ERJ-190 aircraft, overshot the runway at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Santa Marta, went down an embankment, and ended up with the front end of the aircraft in the ocean. There were no fatalities.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.copaair.com/sites/co/en/noticias/Pages/mileage-plus-loyalty-program.aspx
2. ^ "Terms and Conditions." Copa Airlines. Retrieved on January 31, 2011.
3. ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 50. 2007-03-27. 
4. ^ "Aero Republica to launch Mexico and Cuba services". http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/08/12/346094/aero-republica-to-launch-mexico-and-cuba-services.html. Retrieved 2010-08-16. "Aero Republica" 
5. ^ [1006-01-01 "Aero Republica becomes Copa Airlines Colombia"]. 2010-10-07. 1006-01-01. Retrieved 2010-10-07. 
6. ^ "Aero República despidió su último avión MD" (in Spanish). www.AeroRepublica.com. http://www.aerorepublica.com/noticia.php3?nt=349. 
7. ^ Flight International July 2005

External links

	Colombia portal
	Companies portal
	Aviation portal

• (Spanish) (English) Copa Airlines Colombia official website