Bogotá (EFE).- Avianca announced this Saturday that it gave up joining Viva due to the “conditions” that the Civil Aeronautics of Colombia (Aerocivil) has placed on the process, something that the airline considers may “even affect” its stability .
The company said in a statement that it 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.”
However, the information added, the airline studied in detail the most recent resolution on the integration and found that “Aerocivil’s conditions make it impossible for Viva to recover and could even affect Avianca’s stability.”
Viva suspended operations on February 27 due to serious financial problems that left thousands of passengers on the ground.
Aerocivil conditions for Avianca
Last Monday, Aerocivil published a resolution in which it updated the conditions for the integration of Avianca and Viva.
They propose that “the rights of Viva users be respected and addressed”, which means that the money for air tickets be reimbursed or that “those who have reservations and tickets pending execution” be allowed to travel.
It also points out that Avianca had to “maintain Viva Air’s ‘low cost’ scheme as an option that materializes alternatives for users of the air transport service, especially on those routes that were only operated by said airline.”
Likewise, Aerocivil said that the company should return “departure and arrival slots, adjusting them in such a way that the infrastructure of the El Dorado International Airport is used more efficiently, guaranteeing competition conditions and enabling the permanence of Viva Air”.
In this regard, Avianca assured this Saturday that what was raised by the air authority demonstrates “little regulatory flexibility to provide certainty about the conditions for the reactivation of Viva operations.”
The airline also considered that there is a “lack of adjustment to the conditions of Viva’s current reality and the time elapsed between the start of the process” of integration, in August last year, and “the date of a firm decision.”
“The conditions require Avianca to assume obligations, routes, and service level commitments and prices that do not match Viva’s remaining capacities after two months of suspension of operations,” the information added.
The president of Avianca, Adrián Neuhauser, assured that “the conditions of this resolution make it impossible to rescue Viva by making it not only unfeasible as an airline, but if it occurs” it would “put at risk” the stability of the airline it directs and ” the connectivity of Colombia”.
The company also pointed out that this “unfortunate outcome” was partly to blame for other airlines “that played a detrimental role, improving their competitive position in the market by delaying the decisions of the authority.”