Avianca reiterates and details five proposals to support the rescue of Viva Air
After six months of having initiated the application process for Avianca and Viva Air to become part of the same business group, the Civil Aeronautics Authority requested adjustments to the conditions initially proposed. In response to this, Avianca reiterated once again before the authority a document detailing its five proposals that demonstrate its interest in maintaining the balance in the market; the Viva brand and its formal jobs; the connectivity of the regions and the protection of thousands of passengers that fly with this airline.
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The conditions presented to the authority subject to the integration process are:
1. Decrease of participation in El Dorado: If Avianca and Viva are part of the same business group, they would deliver up to 105 slots, i.e. take-off and landing permits. With these slots available in different slots, including those with the highest passenger traffic, any other airline with aircraft and investment capacity could operate up to 15 additional aircraft at El Dorado, the only airport in Colombia that currently has restrictions that limit the free entry of airlines that want to compete.
2. Survival of Viva: The brand and its low-cost business model, jobs, aircraft and routes that Viva operates exclusively would be maintained.
3. Protection of fares and/or frequencies: On routes in which Avianca and Viva together have a high participation as a result of the transaction, fares and/or frequencies would be protected, as the case may be.
4. Boosting Satena’s social role in regional connectivity: Offering Satena code-sharing or interline agreements on routes where it is the only operator, allowing passengers from the most isolated territories to connect with all destinations in Avianca’s network and strengthening its undeniable regional prominence.
5. Maintenance of Viva’s interline agreements: Foreign airlines that distribute their passengers through Viva will be guaranteed access to the Colombian market.
“These proposals address the authority’s concerns related to protecting air transport service, market balance and its genuine intent to take care of Viva’s users and workers. We are confident that the authority will approve the integration with conditionalities, allowing Colombia to strengthen tourism as an engine of development,” said Adrian Neuhauser, President and CEO of Avianca.
“Today Colombia is already one of the most competitive markets in the world, with 10 domestic and 30 international operators. The essential thing in this discussion is not to weaken those players that do seek to remain and connect Colombia,” added Neuhauser.
Avianca considers that the recent proposals from different competitors are technically unfeasible, since any takeover of Viva would require, once the purchase is agreed, approval processes in several countries that would take time that the low-cost carrier clearly does not have. Therefore, we question the real intention of these ‘offers’ from actors that after opposing the integration for months and denying the existence of a crisis, today want to appear as saviors with ‘solutions’ that lack credibility.
The company trusts in the timely response of the authorities to the integration process that began in August of last year, seeking to prioritize the connectivity of the regions, the provision of air transportation services and the preservation of formal jobs.
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