The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) announced that it will initiate an administrative process against the Colombian low-cost airline Viva Air for having suspended their flights, which has left hundreds of passengers stranded at the international airports of Lima and Cusco.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) reported that the administrative process will be assumed by the Directorate of Civil Aeronautics “due to non-compliance with the coverage service of its routes to and from” Peruvian territory.
He also welcomed the “availability of the airlines Sky Airlines, Latam and JetSmart to provide their services to the affected passengers.”
In this regard, the official José Carlos Vela, head of the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) of North Lima, declared that his reports indicate that some 300 people are stranded in the airports of Lima. and from Cuzco.
Vela said that during “all early morning” they have “been guiding” passengers at the Lima airport and are also making formal requirements for the company to provide information on the total number of those affected.
He commented that in the face of “the cancellation from one moment to the next” and the communication from company representatives that only part of the money will be returned to the passengers “obviously there is a possible evasion of responsibility.”
“That is where Indecopi intervenes, (to) record these facts that will later allow the procedures to be initiated in accordance with our powers,” he explained.
For his part, Latam confirmed in a statement that it makes “available to passengers who had a scheduled flight on said airline in the next 3 days, the seats that are available” on their direct flights from Lima “on the same affected routes.”
One of the stranded passengers told Canal N that she arrived at the Lima airport at dawn to do her boarding control “and it turns out that there was no one from Viva.”
“Right now there must be about a hundred people, but in the morning there were a little more, they have already left, we are queuing for the rescheduling with the flight with Latam”, he commented.
Another Colombian passenger, who identified himself as William Cáceres, indicated that he arrived in Lima for work and had to return to Medellín urgently, and that among the affected travelers in Lima there are Colombian, Venezuelan, Mexican and Peruvian citizens.
The Viva airline announced this Tuesday in Bogotá the suspension of operations on its national and international flights after the rejection by the Colombian authorities of its request for integration with Avianca to overcome its financial crisis.
Viva Air, which was created in 2009, is headquartered at the José María Córdova international airport in Medellín, and covers 35 internal routes and to Argentina, Brazil and Peru, among other countries.
After the information became known, uncertainty and indignation reigned in the main Colombian airports, with hundreds of people stranded in Bogotá, including about a hundred Peruvians who were trying to return to Lima, according to local media reports. EFE
