Avianca
Gate: 5
Seat: 26A (Economy Window)
Plane: A319
Boarded: 07.34
Pushback: 08.10
Arrived: 09.24 (Scheduled 09.40)
Duration: 1 hour 14 minutes
Distance: 710 kms

This was the first leg of two flights to get to New York City, USA with this Colombian domestic flight from Simon Bolivar International Airport (Santa Marta) to El Dorado International Airport (Bogotá).

I was scheduled to have a 3 hour 20 minute layover to get to my international flight to New York.

Airport Check In
This is a fairly small airport and being a Sunday morning almost no one was at the airport yet even if it appeared that their were several potential passengers out on the nearby beach.

I went to the Avianca Check in with fellow tour member Xavier (who speaks Spanish). There were several issues with my check in. Luckily Xavier had stayed around to he could interpret for me as the check in agents didn’t speak English. The issues related to rules around flying into USA and how you will be leaving so I showed my booked Singapore Airlines flights leaving New York and then provided My ESTA details. This did take some time to resolve, thank goodness I have someone who spoke Spanish and English helping me. My bag was eventually check all the way though to final destination of New York City (JFK Airport).

Lounges and Airport Facilities
As I was only travelling in economy and as Avianca is part of the Star Alliance I couldn’t use my Qantas Gold Status (Oneworld Alliance) to access their Avianca VIP lounge.

No Lounge Access today

The Airport itself was reasonable for it’s size with several ‘okay’ food outlets and a lot of seats at the Gates. There was also free wifi available in the general area which you can use for one hour.

General Airport Waiting Area

Boarding
We boarded from Gate 5 using prioirty boarding. As someone in economy without any status or young children or elderly parents I was allocated into boarding Group C. The boarding system worked well with everyone getting into the right boarding group.

The Seat
The Avianca A319 Economy Class seats are arranged in a 3-3 configuration. Economy seats are 17.8 inches wide and have 31 inches of legroom.

Seat 26A is the window seat

The seat included a Seat Back Entertainment Screen. On this short flight I only used flight map on display and listen to music on my iPhone.

Amenity Kit
As expected no amenity kit provided for this short domestic flight.

Meals
In economy class you are not offered any drinks before departure. There was no meal either but instead a quick water and coffee service which commenced 30 minutes after pushback.

Service
The flight was almost 90% full and the flight attendants did a good professional job on this short demonstrate flight.

Security videos, and all announcements, were first made in Spanish and then English.

Entertainment System
On this short flight I only used flight map from the Entertainment System and just listened to music on my iPhone to relax.

Entertainment System

The Flight
We were ready to leave early but waited for around 10 minutes until we got to our scheduled departure time. There was no airport activity on the tarmac when we left apparently the first flight of the day.

For the over 1 hour flight we didn’t experience any turbulence.

The Plane for today’s flight

Arrival
On arrival we exited to the bag claim area. As I had my bag checked though to New York I exited the domestic section of the terminal and made my way to the International section.

Summary
This was a short and efficient flight. The seats are comfortable and have more than enough room for an economy seat. A safe airline to get you from point A to B.