OceanAir
Encyclopedia
Avianca Brazil trademark of Oceanair Linhas Aéreas S/A, is a Brazil
ian airline based in São Paulo
, Brazil
. It operates passenger services from 23 destinations. Its main base is Guarulhos International Airport
, São Paulo. Even though the legal name of the airline remains OceanAir, Avianca (Colombia) authorized OceanAir to use its name as a brand-name. Avianca (Colombia) and Avianca (Brazil) remain separate legal entities although closely linked and belonging to the same holding group.
According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil
(ANAC) in October 2011 Avianca (Brazil) had 3.74% of the domestic and 1.56% of the international market share
s in terms of passengers per kilometre flown.
. Its name was then OceanAir and began to operate scheduled services in 2002, between São Paulo
, Rio de Janeiro, Macaé
and Campos
. Soon afterwards, it started to become better known to the public with a flight (no longer operated now) connecting Congonhas Airport in São Paulo and Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro via São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, enabling international passengers from both cities easy access to the country's largest international hub from those cities' smaller but central and more convenient airports. At the time, OceanAir's fare between São Paulo's airports was cheaper than a taxi and on a par with a luxury bus ride.
In 2004, Synergy Group
, the owner of OceanAir bought Avianca
, and as a result OceanAir feeds Avianca's flight into GRU and vice-versa. This partnership between the two airlines has increased the flow of passengers between Colombia and Brazil. In 2004, Synergy Group also bought VIP Ecuador
as part of a strategy to create a continent-wide airline under the aegis of Avianca. In 2006, a joint venture formed by OceanAir (49%) and Fondo de Inversiones Sustentables (51%) created a new Peruvian airline called Wayraperú
, but the airline suspended operations a few months later. These airlines make up Synergy Group's aviation interests, and coordination of schedules to feed Avianca's network has been implemented. They will soon all be members of the AviancaPlus Frequent Flyer programme. Synergy Group had a profit of US$ 3 billion in 2005 and investments of US$ 100 million in the last months.
OceanAir started its first international operation to Mexico
in 2007, with Boeing 767-300
aircraft, but in April 2008 the flights were discontinued. Since then the airline has concentrated its efforts on the Brazilian domestic market. Germán Efromovich
, the owner of Avianca
and OceanAir, bought 12 Boeing 787 aircraft, making OceanAir the first Brazilian airline to fly the Dreamliners. Five Airbus A330
and 30 Airbus A320
aircraft will also be added to the fleet in 2010, a contract worth US$ 2.5 billion. With this fleet growth, Efromovich intends to control 15% of the Brazilian air market in the next decade, including routes to Mexico
, Colombia
, Africa
and the United States
.
On 7 October 2009, Sinergy group announced its intention to purchase the cargo-only airline VarigLog from its present owner, Velog. Synergy group chairman Efromovich is already running VarigLog, which remains under judicial protection. If the purchase is finalized, VarigLog would operate services in partnership with OceanAir.
and Avianca
. This merger will increase OceanAir's feeder operations, already implemented with Avianca in São Paulo, to include TACA in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre
.
On March 26, 2010 Germán Efromovich announced the official re-branding of OceanAir, which is now known as Avianca (Brazil). OceanAir Linhas Aéreas remains the legal name of the airline but Avianca (Colombia) allowed OceanAir to use its name as a brand-name for free. This way, Synergy group can further align the operations of OceanAir with the ones of Avianca. The first aircraft with the new name started operations on 27 April 2010. The only notable differences between the aircraft of Avianca (Colombia) and the ones of Avianca (Brazil) are the Brazilian registration numbers and a small Brazilian flag under the cockpit window.
approved to accept the group Avianca-TACA to join the network as future member airline. Avianca Brasil, however, is to be excluded while other arrangements are made. It's also expected that this airline will join the alliance at a later time.
and vice-versa at El Dorado International Airport
in Bogotá
, Colombia
.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian airline based in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. It operates passenger services from 23 destinations. Its main base is Guarulhos International Airport
Guarulhos International Airport
São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governador André Franco Montoro International Airport , formerly called Cumbica Airport after the district where it is located and the Air Force Base that still exists at the airport complex, is the main airport serving São Paulo, Brazil. It is located in the adjoining...
, São Paulo. Even though the legal name of the airline remains OceanAir, Avianca (Colombia) authorized OceanAir to use its name as a brand-name. Avianca (Colombia) and Avianca (Brazil) remain separate legal entities although closely linked and belonging to the same holding group.
According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil
National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil
The National Civil Aviation Agency , also known as ANAC, is the Brazilian civil aviation authority, created in 2006...
(ANAC) in October 2011 Avianca (Brazil) had 3.74% of the domestic and 1.56% of the international market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
s in terms of passengers per kilometre flown.
OceanAir days
The airline was established in 1998 as an air taxi company to operate services for oil companies in the Campos BasinCampos Basin
Campos Basin is a petroleum rich area located offshore of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has a total area of 100,000 square kilometres, with 40 fields discovered and operated by Petrobras....
. Its name was then OceanAir and began to operate scheduled services in 2002, between São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Rio de Janeiro, Macaé
Macaé
Macaé is a city located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, 180 km northeast of the state capital. Its population was recorded as 206,748 in 2010 and the municipal covers an area of 1,216 km²....
and Campos
Campos dos Goytacazes
Campos dos Goytacazes is a municipality and city located in the northern area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, with a population of 463,545 inhabitants. Its area is 4,031.910 km², which makes it the largest municipality in the state and its elevation is 14 m...
. Soon afterwards, it started to become better known to the public with a flight (no longer operated now) connecting Congonhas Airport in São Paulo and Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro via São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, enabling international passengers from both cities easy access to the country's largest international hub from those cities' smaller but central and more convenient airports. At the time, OceanAir's fare between São Paulo's airports was cheaper than a taxi and on a par with a luxury bus ride.
In 2004, Synergy Group
Synergy Group
Synergy Group is a South American conglomerate owned by Bolivian-born Germán Efromovich, an entrepreneur holding dual citizenship of Colombia and Brazil. The group its headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil....
, the owner of OceanAir bought Avianca
Avianca
Avianca S.A. is the flag carrier airline of Colombia since December 5, 1919 when it was initially registered under the name SCADTA. It is headquartered in Bogotá, D.C. with its hub at the El Dorado International Airport...
, and as a result OceanAir feeds Avianca's flight into GRU and vice-versa. This partnership between the two airlines has increased the flow of passengers between Colombia and Brazil. In 2004, Synergy Group also bought VIP Ecuador
VIP Ecuador
VIP is an airline based at Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador. This airline forms part of Synergy Group jointly with Avianca in Colombia, AeroGal in Ecuador and Avianca Brazil .- History :The Ecuadorian VIP S.A...
as part of a strategy to create a continent-wide airline under the aegis of Avianca. In 2006, a joint venture formed by OceanAir (49%) and Fondo de Inversiones Sustentables (51%) created a new Peruvian airline called Wayraperú
Wayraperú
Wayraperú was an airline based at Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, Perú.- History :Wayraperú is the result of the joint venture between the Brazilian company OceanAir and Fondo de Inversiones Sustentables, run by entrepreneur Pedro Koechlin....
, but the airline suspended operations a few months later. These airlines make up Synergy Group's aviation interests, and coordination of schedules to feed Avianca's network has been implemented. They will soon all be members of the AviancaPlus Frequent Flyer programme. Synergy Group had a profit of US$ 3 billion in 2005 and investments of US$ 100 million in the last months.
OceanAir started its first international operation to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 2007, with Boeing 767-300
Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail...
aircraft, but in April 2008 the flights were discontinued. Since then the airline has concentrated its efforts on the Brazilian domestic market. Germán Efromovich
German Efromovich
German Efromovich is a Bolivian-born Colombian-Brazilian entrepreneur born to a family of Polish Jews in Bolivia, raised in Arica, Chile and in São Paulo, Brazil...
, the owner of Avianca
Avianca
Avianca S.A. is the flag carrier airline of Colombia since December 5, 1919 when it was initially registered under the name SCADTA. It is headquartered in Bogotá, D.C. with its hub at the El Dorado International Airport...
and OceanAir, bought 12 Boeing 787 aircraft, making OceanAir the first Brazilian airline to fly the Dreamliners. Five Airbus A330
Airbus A330
The Airbus A330 is a wide-body twin-engine jet airliner made by Airbus, a division of EADS. Versions of the A330 have a range of and can accommodate up to 335 passengers in a two-class layout or carry of cargo....
and 30 Airbus A320
Airbus A320 family
The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001...
aircraft will also be added to the fleet in 2010, a contract worth US$ 2.5 billion. With this fleet growth, Efromovich intends to control 15% of the Brazilian air market in the next decade, including routes to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
On 7 October 2009, Sinergy group announced its intention to purchase the cargo-only airline VarigLog from its present owner, Velog. Synergy group chairman Efromovich is already running VarigLog, which remains under judicial protection. If the purchase is finalized, VarigLog would operate services in partnership with OceanAir.
Deal with TACA and rebranding to Avianca (Brazil)
On October 9, 2009 Synergy announced a merger deal between TACAGrupo TACA
TACA is the trade name "brand" comprising a group of five independently IATA-coded and -owned Central American airlines, whose operations are combined to function as one and a number of other independently owned and IATA-coded regional airlines which code-share and feed the TACA brand system...
and Avianca
Avianca
Avianca S.A. is the flag carrier airline of Colombia since December 5, 1919 when it was initially registered under the name SCADTA. It is headquartered in Bogotá, D.C. with its hub at the El Dorado International Airport...
. This merger will increase OceanAir's feeder operations, already implemented with Avianca in São Paulo, to include TACA in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre
Salgado Filho International Airport
Salgado Filho International Airport is the airport serving Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is named after the Senator and first Minister of the Brazilian Air Force Joaquim Pedro Salgado Filho , killed on June 20, 1950 in an accident with an aircraft which departed from Porto Alegre.In 2010 the airport...
.
On March 26, 2010 Germán Efromovich announced the official re-branding of OceanAir, which is now known as Avianca (Brazil). OceanAir Linhas Aéreas remains the legal name of the airline but Avianca (Colombia) allowed OceanAir to use its name as a brand-name for free. This way, Synergy group can further align the operations of OceanAir with the ones of Avianca. The first aircraft with the new name started operations on 27 April 2010. The only notable differences between the aircraft of Avianca (Colombia) and the ones of Avianca (Brazil) are the Brazilian registration numbers and a small Brazilian flag under the cockpit window.
Star Alliance
On November 10, 2010 Star AllianceStar Alliance
Star Alliance is the world's first and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany . The alliance was founded in 1997 by five of the world's leading airlines: Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines...
approved to accept the group Avianca-TACA to join the network as future member airline. Avianca Brasil, however, is to be excluded while other arrangements are made. It's also expected that this airline will join the alliance at a later time.
Destinations
Avianca Brazil connects flights at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport with those of AviancaAvianca
Avianca S.A. is the flag carrier airline of Colombia since December 5, 1919 when it was initially registered under the name SCADTA. It is headquartered in Bogotá, D.C. with its hub at the El Dorado International Airport...
and vice-versa at El Dorado International Airport
El Dorado International Airport
El Dorado International Airport is an international airport located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the largest Latin America airport in terms of cargo movements with 593,946 tons and the third in terms of passenger traffic, only behind São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport and Mexico City's...
in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
.
Fleet
The fleet of Avianca Brazil includes the following aircraft configured in all-economy class (as of November 2011):| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A318 | 5 | — | 120 | |
| Airbus A319 Airbus A320 family The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001... |
3 | — | 132 | |
| Airbus A320-200 Airbus A320 family The Airbus A320 family is a family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger jet airliners manufactured by Airbus Industrie.Airbus was originally a consortium of European aerospace companies, and is now fully owned by EADS. Airbus's name has been Airbus SAS since 2001... |
1 | 3 | ||
| Fokker 100 | 14 | — | 100 | |
| Total | 23 | 3 |
| Aircraft | Total | Years of Operation |
|---|---|---|
| Embraer EMB 120 Brasília Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia -Accidents:*Brazilian Air Force on July 8, 1988 an Embraer EMB 120RT Brasília registration FAB-2001 crashed during and engine-out landing at São José dos Campos. Five of the 9 occupants died.... |
5 | 2001–2008 |
| Fokker 50 | 3 | 2003–2008 |
| Boeing 767-300 Boeing 767 The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail... |
3 | 2007–2008 |