This Monday, February 27, Viva Air announced through a statement that it would suspend its operations immediately.. As a consequence of this, thousands of people were stranded at the airports where the airline had routes.
The foregoing occurred both in the national and international territory, as passengers to and from Lima, Peru or Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also affected.
The Civil Aeronautics issued a statement the following day explaining that Latam, Avianca and Satena would offer flight alternatives that would depend on the occupation or seats available. However, only for those passengers with flights purchased for February 27 and 28 or March 1.
At this time we do not have the capacity to return money
The question that arises, then, will the money be returned to those for whom the routes offered will not work? In fact, there are those who have Viva Air coupon books for future months. To refer to this situation Francisco Lalinde, President of Viva Airspoke with ‘Blu Radio’.
As he said, he is already managing the issue with Civil Aeronautics, however, “At this time we do not have the capacity to return money.”
“That money from the tickets, if we enter the liquidation process, enters as debts that the company has. We are in the process of Law 550 and the first category that determines in terms of response is employees”said.
(Keep reading: Petro orders Satena to attend to passengers affected by the suspension of Viva Air).
Now, regarding some complaints about the ticket sales that same Monday, prior to the announcement of the suspension of operations, said that “since Thursday of the previous week we had been seeking to speak with civil aeronautics. (…) The minister knew that we were at risk of closing operations between Monday and Tuesday. And the director of Aerocivil had a WhatsApp from us. We had to resolve the legal aspects first.”
Therefore, the decision was made at 6:10 pm after a meeting with shareholdersbut there was a process of an hour and a half in which they defined where the planes that were on the ground would be, how to communicate to pilots and other personnel that they were flying, disconnect operations with travel agencies, among other legal aspects.
“It is not an exercise as simple as turning it off and that’s it, because there is such an important human factor. And in these seven months managing a crisis we have put users first”Lalinde stated.
This time they had to prioritize their collaborators. in fact, they ask them to accept the settlement with the cash flow they have -which allows them to operate for only seven days-. After this time, the president of Viva Air believes that the airline has been liquidated: “I don’t think there is a different scenario, given the current cash situation.”
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Daisy Contreras
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