First modification:
Viva Air temporarily suspended operations pending a decision from Colombia’s aviation authority on its proposed merger with Avianca. The surprise suspension unleashed a crisis on February 28 at the airports of the main Colombian cities, where thousands of passengers were stranded.
Low-cost airline Viva Air suspended operations in Colombia and Peru, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and unanswered at airports. The airline, owned by the same Ryanair group, said in a statement that it was suspending its flights after the latest delay by Colombian authorities in approving the merger request with Avianca, Colombia’s main airline.
Viva had grounded five of its planes and suspended dozens of flights earlier this month. According to the airline, it presented the Colombian government with numerous evidence of its dire financial situation and that it will only be able to continue if they merge with a larger company.
“But the Colombian government’s decision jeopardizes the future of low-cost airlines in Colombia and threatens the jobs of 5,000 people,” they said in the statement.
The company argues that the decision by Aeronáutica Civil, Aerocivil, to issue a “communication acknowledging the interests of various third parties regarding Viva’s urgent request to allow its integration with a stronger and larger group of airlines” would result in “new delays in making a decision”.
The company has 35 internal routes and flights to Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Hundreds of passengers affected
The suspension of operations surprised the passengers, many of them foreigners, who were waiting for their flights with Viva Air, which led to protests and verbal attacks at the El Dorado airports in Bogotá; José María Córdova, from Medellín; Ernesto Cortissoz, from Barranquilla, and Rafael Núñez, from Cartagena, mainly.
Many were also stranded at the international airports of Lima and Cusco, which led the Peruvian government to initiate an administrative process against the Colombian airline. Samuel Ramos, one of those injured in Bogotá because he had a flight to Cartagena de Indias with his mother, found out about the airline’s decision upon arriving at the airport.
“We started calling, but the line has an answering machine where they don’t say anything,” he commented and said that Aerocivil has not given them an answer either.
Aerocivil assured that the airlines Latam, Avianca and Satena “offer alternative transportation on shared routes, according to the availability of seats, at no additional cost.”
Avianca announced that “those passengers with confirmed tickets or reservations on February 27 and 28 and March 1 will be relocated, free of charge and in order of arrival, on Avianca flights that have availability.”
“Now is the time for us as an industry to help the hundreds of thousands of passengers who are affected by a crisis that could clearly have been avoided. Aerocivil has already enabled mechanisms so that we can protect users and our task is to make all our ability to do so,” said Avianca CEO Adrian Neuhauser.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, suggested that the state company Satena attend to the affected passengers. “We woke up with the news on television about Viva Air, a company that goes bankrupt and leaves some people stranded at airports with tickets sold. One says, here it should operate immediately, at least in defense of those users, Satena, which is currently managed by the Air Force,” Petro said.
In November of last year, Avianca and Viva Air appealed a decision by Aerocivil to reject the integration of both companies, considering that it could generate an undue restriction of competition.
Aerocivil argued that “this economic group would reach 100% participation in 16 national routes” and that, “in terms of free competition, it would mean a setback and a return to levels that were not seen in the country for more than seven years.” .
On January 19, the Colombian authorities informed the two airlines that they had to formally request their integration again.
With EFE and AP
