Page 212 - ecuador2011

www.ebizguides.com 210
Transport
AEROGAL (AVIANCATACA)
Gabriela Sommerfeld
President
Amazonas 7797 and Juan Holguín
Quito
Tel: +593 2 3960 600
Fax: +593 2 2430 487
www.aerogal.com.ec
Area of activity: Airline
Date of creation: 1985
Employees: 889
Annual turnover: $80 million USD (2009)
Aerogal has been recently acquired by AviancaTa-
ca. The company was founded in 1985 to provide
air transportation services for passengers and
freight in continental Ecuador and Galapagos Is-
lands. In 2002 it acquired its first Boeing 727-200
Advance to run a route from Quito to Guayaquil.
In 2003, the company started its operations in the
Galapagos Islands and in 2004 opened the route
from Quito to Cuenca. In 2006, the Civil Aviation
Board granted Aerogal the concession for operat-
ing international flights in the region CARSAM and
North America, starting their operations in Bogota
in July 2006. On December 7, 2009 the company
launched its first flight to New York. Aerogal was
one of the airline market leaders in Ecuador and
had 13 aircrafts, the largest fleet in the country.
AVIANCA-TACA acquired nearly 100 percent of
the outstanding shares of AeroGal. As a result of
this transaction, the Ecuadorian airline forms part
of a group of integrated companies AVIANCA-
TACA. In this respect, Ecuadorian travellers have
access to different routes, frequencies and sched-
ules in the country, the region and the world.
Following the acquisition, Avianca Taca AeroGal
works on strengthening its service offer in South
America, offering passengers various routes in
the region and links to over 100 destinations in
America and Europe, providing them with the
highest quality of services.
As an important part of its integration process,
Avianca, Taca and AeroGal have developed their
respective policies and measures in order to cre-
ate synergies that will allow them to streamline
operations, improve the coverage of their route
networks, expand connectivity and standardize
their operating standards and customer service.
AeroGal currently has a fleet of 13 aircrafts, which
directly serve 11 destinations, nine in Ecuador
AIR FRANCE KLM ECUADOR
Marie Noelle Landazuri
Country Manager
12 de Octubre N26-27 and A. Lincoln,
Edif. Torre 1492, of. 1103
Tel: +593 2 3966 728
Fax: +593 2 3966 758
www.klm.com
Area of Activity: Airline
Date of creation: 1954
Employees: 63
Annual turnover: $38 million USD
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is a worldwide company
based in the Netherlands. Since their merger in
2004, KLM works closely with Air France within
the AIR FRANCE KLM holding company. In terms
of financial turnover, AIR FRANCE KLM is the
world’s largest airline partnership; it also trans-
ports the most passengers and is the world’s
second-largest cargo transporter.
KLM is the core business of the KLM Group,
which also includes wholly-owned subsidiaries:
KLM Cityhopper, transavia.com and Martinair.
Subsidiaries transavia.com and Martinair KLM op-
erate European scheduled and charter services in
the ‘low cost, low fare’ market. Martinair is a cargo
operator that, until the end of 2011, was also a
passenger operator in the international leisure
market. KLM, transavia.com and Martinair supple-
ment and strengthen each other in different ways.
In Ecuador, KLM has a long tradition and has
been present here for the last 56 years. Air France
stopped flying to the country in the 90’s but has
returned due to this acquisition. The company has
64 employees, with a turnover of USD$25 mil-
lion for passenger and USD$18 million for cargo
operations. They carry 50,000 passengers per
year using 5 weekly flights and connections to
Bogota, Caracas, Panama (in alliance with COPA
Airlines) and now with Lima, the new hub. 40%
of its turnover comes from business people even
and 2 international: Quito - Bogota and Quito -
New York.
According to Gabriela Sommerfeld, President of
AeroGal: “This deal represents a valuable oppor-
tunity for travellers in Ecuador, as well as for per-
sonal and commercial aviation in the country to
become part of one of the leading airline groups
in the region”.