Avianca

When a Dreamliner with a red tail and the lowercase “avianca” titles floats in over Madrid, Barcelona or London, you’re photographing a piece of aviation history. Avianca was founded in 1919, the same year as KLM. That makes it the world’s second-oldest airline still flying today. This page shows you how to reliably identify Colombia’s flag carrier, which aircraft you can expect in Europe and why the registrations sometimes look more American than Colombian.

Avianca at a glance

Avianca is Colombia’s flag carrier and the country’s largest airline. The group headquarters is in Bogotá, and the company is registered in Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast. That is also where it all began. The most important hub is El Dorado Airport in Bogotá (BOG), one of the busiest airports in Latin America. Other nodes in the network include Medellín, Cali and Cartagena.

The network reaches far beyond Colombia. Avianca flies within South America, to Central America and the Caribbean, to the USA and to Canada. Several destinations in Europe are added to that. Part of the Central American network comes from the former TACA of El Salvador. Its companies have flown under the Avianca brand since 2013, including the former Costa Rican flag carrier LACSA.

Since June 21, 2012, Avianca has been a member of Star Alliance. There it meets Lufthansa, United Airlines, TAP Air Portugal and its direct neighbor Copa Airlines from Panama. Avianca also has a close codeshare partnership with United.

Codes, callsign and registrations

• IATA code AV: appears in the flight number, on departure boards and on the ticket.
• ICAO code AVA: used by air traffic control, and you’ll find it on most flight trackers.
• Callsign AVIANCA: this is how the crew checks in on the radio.
• Registrations HK- and N-: Colombia’s prefix is HK-. But many Avianca aircraft wear a US registration with N-, often ending in AV.

The last point in particular confuses beginners. An N- on the fuselage at Avianca doesn’t mean a US airline is flying. Such registrations mostly have to do with financing and leasing. Why aircraft are often registered in a different country than where their airline is based is explained in the article on offshore registrations and leasing. How IATA and ICAO codes are structured is covered in the guide IATA and ICAO codes explained.

From SCADTA to Avianca: over 100 years of history

Avianca’s roots lie in Barranquilla. On December 5, 1919, Colombian and German businesspeople founded SCADTA there, the “Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transporte Aéreo”. The name says it all: it was a Colombian-German company. Many pilots and technicians of the first years came from Germany.

SCADTA made its first flight in 1920 with a Junkers F 13. It was a mail flight from Barranquilla to the nearby coastal town of Puerto Colombia. The robust all-metal aircraft from Dessau suited a country with mountains, jungle and rivers but hardly any roads.

In 1940 everything changed. On June 14, the Colombian government ordered the merger of SCADTA with its smaller competitor SACO. This created the “Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia” – Avianca for short. After World War II the airline built up its international network. From 1950 it flew regularly to Europe, including Madrid, Lisbon and Rome. With the Super Constellation, connections to Frankfurt and Hamburg were even added in the mid-1950s.

A second big step came from 2009 with the merger with TACA. The joint holding was initially called AviancaTaca, and from 2013 Avianca Holdings. Since May 2013 the former TACA companies have also flown under the name Avianca.

Crisis, restart and Abra Group

The COVID pandemic hit Avianca hard. In May 2020, the airline and numerous subsidiaries filed for creditor protection under Chapter 11 in New York. The Peruvian subsidiary Avianca Perú was dissolved. At the end of 2021, Avianca completed the restructuring and restarted. The holding then moved its legal seat to the United Kingdom and has been called Avianca Group since. The headquarters stayed in Bogotá.

In May 2022, Avianca’s main shareholders and the majority owner of Brazil’s GOL announced a joint holding: the Abra Group. The merger was completed in 2023. Both airlines keep their brands and their own flight operations. Later Spain’s Wamos Air was added, whose purchase was completed in October 2024. At the end of 2025, Abra also announced the integration of Chile’s Sky Airline.

The takeover of Viva Air Colombia, on the other hand, didn’t work out. Colombia’s aviation authority approved it in March 2023 only under strict conditions. In May 2023 Avianca withdrew. Viva Air had already ceased flight operations at the end of February 2023.

The fleet: Airbus for the region, Boeing for long-haul

Avianca’s fleet is clearly divided. For domestic flights and routes within the Americas, the airline flies the Airbus A320 family. For long-haul it uses the Boeing 787-8. In total Avianca has well over 100 aircraft. The exact number varies by source and date, because older aircraft leave and new A320neos join.

Type	Use	Spotter note
Airbus A319	Domestic and region	Shortest type in the fleet, being gradually retired
Airbus A320	Domestic and region	Largest sub-fleet, first generation with smaller engines
Airbus A320neo	Domestic and region	Keeps growing, many examples on order
Boeing 787-8	Long-haul, including to Europe	Only widebody jet in service, with business and economy cabin
Airbus A330-900	on order	Two examples on order, not in service yet

The Boeing 787-8 is the most important type for you in Europe. At Avianca it has a business and an economy cabin, and the exact seating depends on the cabin version. The fleet also includes a few secondhand 787-8s that previously flew with Norwegian. At home in South America, by contrast, the A320 family dominates. How to tell the A320 and A320neo apart by the engine is shown in the guide A320neo or ceo?.

How to recognize Avianca

The most important color at Avianca is red. For its 50th birthday in 1969, the airline had its aircraft painted red for the first time, and red has remained the trademark ever since. In 2013 a new design in red and white arrived. In 2023 Avianca revised its look once more. Since then the name appears on the fuselage as a lowercase wordmark: “avianca”.

There are also some special liveries that are popular with spotters:

• Retro livery for the 100th birthday: an A320 (N284AV) in the historic design. You’ll find more on such designs under retro liveries.
• Star Alliance livery: an A319 (N519AV) in the typical alliance design. How these liveries look across all alliances is shown in the article on alliance liveries.
• TACA heritage: an A320 (N567AV) recalls the Central American partner.

These special aircraft are A320 family and therefore only fly in the Americas. You won’t see them in Europe. Whether they are still flying in this paint at the moment is best checked by registration on a flight tracker.

Spotting Avianca in Europe

In Europe, Avianca flies from Bogotá mainly to Madrid, Barcelona and London-Heathrow, plus Paris-Charles de Gaulle; to Madrid it also flies from Medellín. The Boeing 787-8 is generally used on all routes. Frequencies and additional routes change by season. So check the current schedule before every trip.

Destination	Airport	Spotter tip
Madrid	Madrid-Barajas	Lots of Latin America traffic, good spot: La Muñoza
Barcelona	Barcelona-El Prat	Viewpoint right at the runway: Mirador del Prat
London	London-Heathrow	Classics for landings: Myrtle Avenue or Hatton Cross
Paris	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	Huge long-haul operation, tips in the guide Plane spotting at Paris-CDG

Madrid is the gateway to Latin America. Besides Avianca, you see many airlines from South America there in a single day, including Iberia with its routes to Bogotá. How best to approach the airport is explained in the guide Plane spotting at Madrid-Barajas. For Barcelona, the guide Plane spotting in Barcelona helps you. In London you’ll find everything important in the guide Plane spotting at Heathrow.

The flights from Bogotá are mostly overnight flights. In Europe they therefore often arrive in the first half of the day. How to estimate such arrival times is covered in the article When long-haul flights land in Europe.

If you’re looking for Avianca in Germany, you won’t find anything in the current schedule. From Germany, Lufthansa flies to Bogotá from Frankfurt, and you’ll find tips for that in the guide Plane spotting in Frankfurt. Avianca and Lufthansa are both Star Alliance members.

Avianca and the competition in Colombia

At home, Avianca faces strong competition. Among the most important is LATAM Airlines Colombia, the Colombian subsidiary of the LATAM group. Then there is Wingo, Copa’s low-cost brand based in Bogotá. On the cargo side, Avianca Cargo belongs to the same group. Among other things, it flies fresh cut flowers from Colombia around the world.

For spotters in South America the comparison is worthwhile: Avianca flies Airbus on short-haul, while Wingo and Copa rely on the Boeing 737. That lets you presort by aircraft type at Bogotá Airport.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Avianca Brasil for Avianca – the Brazilian company only used the brand and has not flown since 2019.
• Reading N registrations as a US airline – many Avianca aircraft are registered in the USA but belong to the Colombian fleet.
• Equating Avianca and Avianca Cargo – the cargo subsidiary flies its own freighters and has its own identity.
• Taking every red Dreamliner for Avianca – titles, registration and the code AVA give you certainty.
• Seeing the Abra Group as a new airline – Abra is only the holding company, Avianca and GOL keep flying under their own brands.
• Overlooking the TACA heritage – some Avianca routes in Central America go back to the former TACA.

Conclusion

Avianca combines over 100 years of history with a modern network. Behind the red titles stand the SCADTA of 1919 with its German roots, the merger with TACA, a restart after Chapter 11 and today the Abra Group. For you in Europe, one thing above all counts: the Boeing 787-8 landing in Madrid, Barcelona, London and Paris. If you photograph the registration too, you’ll end up with a clean entry in your logbook.