At the end of 1992, Alfonso Avila decided to leave his position as president of SAM, one of the strongest airlines in the Colombian market at the time. He founded his airline, Aerorepublica, with the idea of competing with the powerful Santo Domingo Group.

That business conglomerate not only owned Bavaria, the country's main brewer but also had absolute ownership of Avianca and completely dominated the Colombian aeronautical industry.

Nobody gave a cent for Avila's bet: His colleagues told him he was crazy and his competitors didn't give a dime about him and believed he wouldn't last six months in the market.

But now here he is, more than 30 years later, telling his recipe for success. It will be advantageous to anyone who reads his first book “Fligh High: Business Lessons from the Founder of AeroRepublica and Easyfly”, launched last week. According to Avila, it will be -he promises- just the first in a series of books he hopes to write.

AeroRepública was an immediate success and during its first 10 years, its revenues grew at double-digit rates, while the Colombian aviation market remained frozen. The recipe was simple: while the traditional companies were betting on the flight business for top corporate executives, Avila bet heavily on the underserved tourist market and also offered direct flights between the most important destinations.

During the presentation of his book, Avila recalled that at that time, “if someone wanted to go between Cali and San Andres, they had to make a mandatory stopover in Bogota”.

The direct flights were a success because the fares were more convenient for passengers: on a route with a stopover, there are more kilometers and, consequently, more fuel consumption by the aircraft. In addition, he partnered with all the hotels in Colombia's main tourist destinations, such as Santa Marta and San Andres, to fill their hotel rooms with people occupying the seats on his flights. The formula was a hit.

A few years later, AeroRepública ended up in the hands of Copa Airlines, the Panamanian group, which turned it into Wingo.

From that company, Avila jumped to another even more revolutionary business model: Easyfly. It is an airline that operates direct flights between non-traditional destinations in Colombia. For example, this airline, now called Click, flies the Bogotá-Villavicencio, Bogotá-Yopal, Cali-Tumaco, Pereira-Medellín, Medellín-Nuquí routes, among others; in total there are more than 60 routes. Today it has an annual turnover of more than US$130 million.

Avila says that while writing the book he was surprised by everything he had done in his life. Perhaps that is the main lesson of the entrepreneur: you have to do things and not wonder too much about what will come or make too many calculations about the results.

“You should never say that you can't and shouldn't be afraid of failure,” he said with conviction during the presentation of his book. For him, that is the anatomy of success.

Avila is an example of business and entrepreneurial life: he is a businessman who continues with the task and who discovered that you must always look for market possibilities and propose innovative products and services because if you come up with the same thing everyone else is selling, you are going to fail.

Avila assured that he continues to be an entrepreneur and that right now he is involved in the alternative and renewable energy business.

Keep flying high!