Until next May 31 Avianca will have a plan active to protect Viva users Air, affected by the company’s decision to cease operations in the country since February 27.
The decision was made by the airline after last Saturday, May 13, it withdrew from the integration with Viva Air to save the airline financially.
Adrián Neuhauser, President and CEO of Avianca reveal the plan they have in place to help people who were affected by the Viva crisis and reiterated the airline’s willingness to open new jobs, cover some of the routes that they stopped operating and «shake hands» with passengers who «remained on the ground.»
According to Neuhauser they have put more than 70 special flights at their expense.
“Around 180,000 passengers have been rescued by the system, we have rescued more than 95 percent and we want to continue providing solutions. We have put more than 70 special flights at our expense. The vocation is to continue providing connectivity and for that we need to bring planes, hire employees and we are going to make a preferential plan for those who are losing their jobs at Viva”, he affirmed.
Adrián Neuhauser, president of the Avianca Group.
«Our competitors, who account for half the market, have bailed out less than 5 percent. In that order of ideas, we believe that Avianca cannot continue to absorb this disproportionately, We have set a limit until May 31. Aerocivil refers to the fact that it is considering a protection scheme and to the extent that it is symmetrical and even, we are going to consider it and we are going to participate,» he said.
Neuhauser has indicated that relations with the Government are good, in the same way with Aerocivil, but he considers that they issued an erroneous ruling. «What we are looking for is compliance with the racks in the distribution of the slots, that is what we are going to monitor.»
(You can also read: Aerocivil responds to Avianca after giving up integration with Viva Air).
In addition, it will highlight that if there is no other solution for Viva, then it will go into liquidation.
«From the beginning we believe that this is a problem for the regulator and the industry, in which the entire industry should have acted consistently. In Mexico, for example, with Interjet, the regulator rolled up its sleeves, put together a structure and demanded that all airlines participating equally. our actions did little or nothing and the one that has taken charge of the problem in a disproportionate way is Avianca«said the manager.
Archive El Tiempo/Viva Air
On the other hand, the director of the airline said that the company is trying to replace most of the routes left by Viva Air, which are about a dozen.
«There remains a great competitive gap, which both we and our competitors will seek to fill. Viva leaves a little less than a dozen routes in which it was a single operator, we hope to supply the vast majority, obviously, shared with the competition, but we have all the disposition. It will not be easy or fast, when an airline disappears it is a process that takes years. We seek to be part of the solution, we are looking for planes and personnel to supply these routes, we will request slots to supply them under the distribution regulations of the RAC», highlight.
Regarding Avianca planes in the future, its president added that in Colombia and Latin America they are maintained.
«We are advancing in the business plan that we presented in Chapter 11. Without a doubt, we are a new Avianca, we are strengthened and We are increasingly competitive and efficient. We fly to 24 countries and 70 destinations in America and Europe; we transport more than 24.6 million passengers a year; we answer calls in our contact center in 2 minutes on average; With Avianca Cargo, we move more than 450,000 tons of cargo per year and we have reached 11.9 million LifeMiles members,» they highlighted.
In addition, he pointed out that his operation is increasingly sustainable: «we offset 90 percent of our carbon footprint in Colombia. We are very close to completing the reconfiguration of around 100 A320 aircraft, 90 per cent of our aircraft have the new entertainment systemwe have opened more than 20 new routes despite the challenging environment due to fuel prices, inflation and the exchange rate».
More news
New home sales in Colombia continue in free fall; fell 62% in April
The labor reform debate starts with warnings about the impact on unemployment
President of Avianca responds to Aerocivil and airlines: «They played a perverse role»