( Spanish) — Avianca airline reported this Saturday that it will desist from integrating with Viva Air due to the “conditions” imposed by the Civil Aeronautics of Colombia, which could put its “stability” and that of the sector at risk, according to the company said in a statement.
“Avianca consistently reiterated for months its conviction that the integration was the best solution to respond to Viva’s financial crisis, and to protect consumers, employees and air connectivity,” the company explained in the press release. press.
He added that, after a resolution issued by Aeronáutica Civil on May 5, the “conditions of Aerocivil make the recovery of Viva impossible and could even affect the stability of Avianca, unfortunately the Company was forced to withdraw from the integration”.
In its resolution, Aeronáutica indicated that among the conditions for the merger were the reimbursement of canceled flight tickets to Viva Air customers and the permanence of the airline’s low-cost scheme.
In its statement, Avianca said that it regretted the “little regulatory flexibility to provide certainty about the conditions for the reactivation of Viva’s operations” and that “the conditions require Avianca to assume obligations, routes, and commitments of service levels and prices that do not coincide with the remaining capacities of Viva after two months of suspension of operations”.
“This would make Viva economically unfeasible, and is explicitly contradicted by other conditions that require Viva to continue to provide connectivity on historic routes where it was the sole operator, and to protect passengers affected by Viva’s cessation of operations. , which according to official figures exceeds 500,000”, it was indicated in the Avianca note.
This Saturday, Viva Air regretted Avianca’s decision in another statement and said that “in this way we reached this outcome that destroys a company and all the value around it due to the lack of understanding of the business.”
In its press release, Viva indicated that it announced “with deep pain” that, without financial backing, the company “no longer has the capacity to continue operating in the market.”
Viva did not say what will happen to the complaints from users affected by the shutdown, but noted that it is “defining the courses of action to follow” and that it will report more details publicly later.
Aeronáutica Civil de Colombia announced last March that it had approved the integration of the airlines Avianca and Viva Air. The suspension of operations of the latter came after, at the end of February, Viva Air suddenly canceled flights in the country, and even at international airports, which provoked protests from customers.
