JetSMART CCO Victor Mejia (left) on stage at Routes Americas 2025.
Nearly a year after launching a subsidiary in Colombia, ULCC JetSMART plans to continue growing in the market and increasing connectivity, according to a senior executive.
“We started in Colombia in March 2024,” CCO Victor Mejia told the Routes Americas conference here in Nassau, Bahamas. “It was a slow ramp up. It was mostly the second half in 2024 [when the carrier started having success in the market]. Definitely, we're looking forward to continuing to serve this domestic market, which is one of the biggest in South America.”
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JetSMART Colombia is the third spin-off subsidiary of the Indigo Partners-backed ULCC, which has its headquarters in Chile, where it started service in 2017. JetSMART also has subsidiary carriers with air operator certificates (AOC) in Argentina and Peru, in addition to Chile.
The Colombian AOC, allowing operations to start in that country last year, gave JetSMART access to a market that had seen two LCCs—Ultra Air and Viva—fail in 2023.
“The market demanded” the entry of a ULCC to compete with Avianca, Colombia’s largest airline, Mejia said, adding JetSMART has seen “very positive results for the first year in Colombia."
JetSMART started Colombian operations with seven domestic routes and is now operating 16 domestic routes. It originally based three aircraft in Colombia, and has now expanded to eight aircraft spread over bases in Bogota and Medellin. The carrier is an all-Airbus A320-family aircraft operator.
“We're looking forward to continuing to work with airports and local governments in order to provide more connectivity in the country,” Mejia said. “In Colombia, because of its geography, people have to fly. It’s a must to keep the country connected with short sectors [of about 300 to 370 mi.]. You say, well, why would people fly those sectors? Because there's a mountain chain in the middle of the country [that makes it difficult to travel via ground transportation]. It's a country that's made for the ULCC model. You have very short sectors and a lot of frequencies.”
Avianca CEO Frederico Pedreira recently said the Colombian domestic market has strong growth potential, with a high number of first-time passengers providing optimism for future expansion—14% of the airline’s 2024 domestic passengers were flying for the first time. He added Avianca’s basic economy product is quite popular with domestic passengers, enabling the Bogota-based airline to offer a low-fare option for price-sensitive travelers.
“We respect each other and we compete hard,” Mejia said of Avianca. “It’s definitely a good thing that the market was ready for our model and wants this type of airline. There is still a big opportunity for growth.”
The next step for JetSMART Colombia is launching international services from the country, which Mejia said is expected to happen in the second half of 2025. “The geographic position of Colombia opens a wide variety of markets for JetSMART that we have not necessarily explored or served in the past because of the distance to Peru or to Argentina or to Chile," he explained. "So, in the upcoming years, for sure, we're going to be active [flying internationally from Colombia].”
He added the carrier will consider routes to the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico from Colombia.
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