Avianca issued warning about alleged failures in landing systems in El Dorado

The Avianca airline complained to Aerocivil about the failures that are occurring in the Instrumental Landing System (ILS) at El Dorado Airport, which affected 320 flights and some 32,000 passengers between March and March of this year.

The ILS (Instrument Landing System) is the system that allows you to land at the airport in low visibility conditions, especially the early morning fog in the savannah. When ILS is not available, the airport's ability to operate is reduced and in some cases planes end up diverted to other airports.

In dialogues with BLU Radio, Daniel Vargas, manager of engineering, operations and dispatch at Avianca, pointed out that, “The sad thing is that the airport does not have the infrastructure, it is that its operability is not guaranteed and it is intermittent, it is that its operability is not guaranteed and it is intermittent. There is no guarantee on the part of the authority to maintain consistency and ensure the operation of that system on a permanent basis.”

According to the airline, the system has been degraded about 68% of the time in the last year and a half.

However, Aeronautica Civil de Colombia, Aerocivil, argues that the reality is different and explained that when weather conditions are optimal and visibility is normal, planes can land safely without the system.

After El Dorado airport requested an amendment to the environmental license, which includes the phased extension of the operating hours in the direction of Bogotá for the two runways. The aeronautical industry is beginning to revive, Colombian airline Avianca would be analyzing possibilities of doing business with Viva Air.

According to the newspaper La República, at the moment the approaches between airlines are in consultation with the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), which is responsible for analyzing competition processes to establish that market limits are not exceeded, which today is 45% of Avianca, 20% of Viva Air, according to data of the Civil Aeronautics with a cut to February 2022.

Avianca Holding, which in 2020 had a total operating income of US $1,711 million and today offers 87 routes in Colombia and 128 in the world, with more than 3,800 weekly flights and more than 640,000 seats per week available to Colombian customers. It totals 198 aircraft operating globally.

For its part, Viva Air, the company that operates 46 domestic routes in Colombia and Peru, 14 international routes: United States, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Argentina and Brazil. It has been marching on the wave of the 'low cost' trend.

The Viva airline today has 22 Airbus 320 aircraft. According to the results for 2020, revenues amounted to $2,945 million, which represented a 73% drop compared to 2019, amid mobility restrictions due to covid-19.

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