On Saturday, Avianca formally announced it would not proceed with its merger plans with Viva Air, the ultra-low-cost carrier with branches in Colombia and Peru. This ended the history of Viva Air, which will officially cease operations after 11 years. But did Avianca really lose because of this? Maybe not.
Why didn’t Avianca lose after canceling the merger with Viva? In February and March, Colombia lost two carriers. First, Viva Air halted all operations on February 28, and a couple of weeks later, Ultra Air –another ULCC– announced its imminent bankruptcy.
For two and a half months, Viva Air remained hopeful that it could be saved through a merger process with Avianca. Nonetheless, Avianca announced on Saturday that this would not happen, following a review of the conditions under which Colombia’s Aerocivil approved the said merger. In a statement, Avianca said,
Daniel Martínez Garbuno is a Mexican journalist. He has specialized in the air industry working mainly for A21, a Mexican media outlet focused entirely on the aviation world. He has also published on other sites like Simple Flying, Roads & Kingdoms, Proceso, El Economista, Buzos de la Noticia, Contenido, and Notimex.