SIC takes offices from Avianca and Viva: seeks integration tests - Sectors

Situation of Viva passengers stranded at the Rionegro airport.

Photo:

Jaiver Nieto Álvarez / El Tiempo

Situation of Viva passengers stranded at the Rionegro airport.

Viva and Avianca are being investigated for an alleged unauthorized integration operation.

Investigators from the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce who are in charge of the processes against the airlines Viva and Avianca for an alleged de facto integration carried out without legal procedures arrived this Thursday morning at the companies’ offices in Bogotá and Rionegro, in an evidence recovery operation.

The SIC has been investigating late last year whether, while they were carrying out the integration authorization process before Civil Aeronautics, Viva and Avianca had already carried out since April “a business integration that had materialized without obtaining the necessary prior authorization from the entity competence”.

Also investigate the facts related to the suspension of operations of Viva that since last Monday have stranded miles of travelers in the country and in several countries to which the airline sold tickets. According to Transportation Minister Guillermo Reyes, there would be at least 460,000 tickets and planes that were sold and for which Viva is not responsible today.

According to official notification known by this newspaper, both Viva and Avianca were informed that the inspection is to “order and carry out tests and collect all the information leading” to obtain “information related to the operations of Avianca SA and the companies with which it has economic relationship in the air passenger transport market in Colombia in order to determine compliance with the competition protection regime”.

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