AVIANCA
Only one other airline has operated for longer than Avianca , Colombia ’ s flagship and Latin America ’ s second largest airline operation , currently a year away from its centennial . Its 172 aircrafts fill a 6,000 flights-a-week schedule , covering 106 destinations located in 26 countries between the Americas and Europe .
It takes more than history to accomplish and sustain this level of operation . Relying on a prepared , skilled staff in every task to complete successful commercial flights and related services ( cargo and other shipments , delivery for select online purchases , among others ) is a very important part of the equation . But a few years ago , Avianca deemed necessary to undergo a transformation process enabling the airline to increase its talented staff ’ s productivity and , most importantly , to enrich and optimise their travellers ’ user experience . The set goal was to become a digital business able to manage aircrafts .
Changes were to take place from top to bottom , as the first step toward
Hernán Rincón
CEO
achieving this goal was hiring Hernán Rincón as the company ’ s CEO in mid- 2016 , after his successful tenure as CEO for Microsoft Latin America .
“ Hernán came in to discover legacy systems that couldn ’ t be possibly considered ‘ avant-garde ’ either within the company or our business sector . We were far behind . Our best solution was to begin a catch up process and , simultaneously , boost every operational and managerial procedure ,” explains Santiago
408 March 2018