Avianca says that it will begin a codesharing agreement with Brazil's domestic market leader Gol, further expanding the Colombian flag carrier's network in South America's largest aviation market as it moves forward from a challenging year. The agreement comes just a few weeks after Avianca announced a similar codeshare tie-up with Azul, allowing the Star Alliance member to regain access to the domestic market following Avianca Brazil's bankruptcy earlier this year. "It's something we have been working on for quite a while," says Avianca's CE Anko van der Werff Monday. "This is fantastic news, especially for consumers, to connect three strong economies in South America – Columbia, Peru and Brazil." Avianca's director of alliances, Ana Maria Copete, adds that the network will expand by "more than 60 destinations both ways". The crisis-ridden Colombian airline is in the process of implementing a comprehensive strategic turnaround plan designed to bring the business back to profitability. It has restructured debt, changed ownership and hired a new management team, including Dutchman van der Werff, a veteran of KLM, Qatar Airways and Aeromexico. A major strategic pillar of the plan is optimisation of the airline's Bogota hub operation with new destinations and connections better suited to higher-yield traffic.<br/>
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United has revealed its new Star Wars-inspired livery, which will take flight next month to coincide with the cinematic release of the latest Star Wars saga. Beginning next month, United will dispatch a special Boeing 737-800 aircraft emblazoned with a glowing light saber on its tail and images of X-wing and TIE fighter starships from the film franchise, as part of a promotional tie-in with "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker." The conclusion of the Skywalker story hits theaters worldwide in December 2019. Along with the new aircraft livery, the Star Wars experience aboard United Airlines will also include special boarding music, themed aircraft interiors, branded headsets and a new Star Wars-themed in-flight safety video. The partnership takes a page out of the marketing playbook of Air New Zealand, which popularized the marketing strategy of riding the wave of blockbuster films, notably with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit." Aviation and Star Wars fans can also track the aircraft via online flight tracking platform FlightAware on both mobile and desktop as the "X-wing" starship.<br/>
A proposed joint venture between United, Colombia's Avianca Holdings and Panama's Copa Holdings has been delayed due to the potential inclusion of Brazil's Azul as a fourth partner, as well as problems at Avianca, the CEOs of two of the companies said. The three airlines had said in November 2018 they would file for US antitrust approval "in the near term" in order to coordinate routes between South America and the United States, a bold move to expand their market share in the region. At the time, the carriers said they aimed to implement the agreements in 2020. United said last week it wants to include Azul, in which it already has a stake, in the planned tie-up with Copa and Avianca, the latest play by a US carrier for a region expected to have significant air-travel growth in coming decades. But almost a year after United, Copa and Avianca announced the preliminary joint venture plan, they have yet to file any paperwork with the US DoT, seeking antitrust immunity. Now, the regulatory process may begin as late as next year. Copa's CEO, Pedro Heilbron, said the group expects to file in early 2020, while Avianca's CEO, Anko van der Werff, said it would file between late 2019 and early 2020. Both spoke to Reuters in separate interviews on Monday on the sidelines of the ALTA Airline Leaders' Forum in Brasilia. Both said there was a delay on the original timeline. The potential inclusion of Azul, which may be in the early stages of negotiations, has been one reason for the timetable slipping. "Quite frankly, really completely open and honest, we haven't had many discussions," van der Werff said. "I personally haven't had even one real, serious discussion at the CEO level about when to include [Azul] and what to include."<br/>