Viva defends alliance it seeking with Avianca

Aviación al Día

3 years ago

In an interview with W Radio, Felix Antelo, CEO of Viva, spoke about what has been happening with the low cost airline and what is expected if the alliance requested before the Aerocivil with Avianca is approved, but which has been criticized by different sectors and other airlines.

Antelo assured that currently all the information requested to the airline by the Aerocivil is already available. He said: “we are collaborating as we have been doing from the beginning to hopefully obtain the most accurate and timely information possible for this approval”.

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Antelo made it clear that currently Viva is owned by the same shareholders that are also the largest shareholders of Avianca, which allows to have a great support of experience and strength, making it clear that in the business that seeks to close between the two airlines is also expected to maintain the low cost business line and the Viva brand, thus defending what has been achieved to date as a company, including of course the hundreds of jobs it generates.

In defense of the attacks to which the search for an alliance with Avianca has been subjected, Viva began by stating that this type of business is something very recurrent in the current world air market where a traditional company allows a low cost company to support it, always looking for the benefit of passengers and allowing the low cost model to continue to develop in the world.

Likewise, facing the comments that assure that the union between Avianca and Viva will give way to the largest low cost airline in the region that in turn will put in check the other airlines that are in the sector, the CEO of Viva said: “what we want to focus on from Viva is to get this alliance approved, make Viva continue to grow, continue to move forward and hopefully being very sincere and in line with what was mentioned before, to be able to do in the next 10 years what we did in these first 10, that is the goal I have from Viva”.

→ Integration between Avianca and Viva would create a monopoly, says CEO of Ultra Air.

Regarding the other airlines that have asked the Aerocivil to disapprove the proposed alliance, Antelo said: “indeed terms such as monopoly, dominant position have been used, I would like to make a clarification and be very forceful in this; in Colombia we operate 8 airlines in the domestic market, there are more than 25 airlines in the international market, this is an open market that has received new competitors every year, we started 10 years ago”.

He also added: “you just gave the example of Ultra Air that started flying this year, this is an open market for more airlines to fly and that will not change in the future; what will change if this alliance is approved is that Viva Air will be much stronger and will be able to continue providing its low cost model in Colombia and from Colombia to different countries in the Americas”.

Without being a spokesman for Avianca, Felix Antelo, CEO of Viva, assured that he does not consider that this airline is interested in bankrupting the low cost airline in order to keep 60% of the domestic market. On the contrary, he defended Avianca’s decision to seek such alliance with which Viva would be strengthened to continue imposing its model.

Regarding Viva’s true financial situation, which was also the object of questioning as it was the main argument presented before the Aerocivil for urgently approving the alliance with Avianca, stating that this would be the low cost’s salvation from bankruptcy, Antelo added: “this year is probably the most challenging and challenging year in macroeconomic terms to operate an airline on account of fuel, exchange rate and inflation, that leaves the airlines in a vulnerable situation because one does not control let’s say the exchange rate not the price of fuel, the difference with other airlines and that affects all airlines, the difference that occurs today with the other airlines is that the other airlines have a shareholder today that can pay, inject liquidity, inject cash in case it is required, we do not because of the situation we are going through, waiting for the approval of this alliance, until we have that approval we do not have that access to financing”.

Finally, Viva assured that it is urgent that the Aerocivil approves the union with Avianca, since although Viva is currently self-financing and the macro indicators have been stabilized for some months, it is necessary to have an additional cushion which would come with the support of a new shareholder.

By Cristian Medina Atuesta