Last Monday, February 27, the Colombian low cost airline Viva Air suspended all its operations, due to the difficult financial state it is facing and for which it filed for bankruptcy. The situation left thousands of passengers stranded, including 500 travelers with scheduled flights to Argentina.
The company communicated that it could not resume the flights that had already been scheduled and paid for in advance, this led hundreds of people to remain for hours, in various airports in Colombia, waiting for a response from Viva Air.
Given this fact, The Argentine Embassy in Colombia, after multiple efforts before the transport authorities of the Government of that country, managed to get 200 Argentine citizens to return to the countryafter they were stranded due to the cancellation of flights from Viva Air.
Citizens will be transferred on Avianca flights, since Viva Air awaits authorization from the Colombian authorities to merge with the company in order to overcome the crisis.
In this way, Avianca began to transfer affected passengers without additional costs, both from Bogotá and from other points in that nation to Argentina. However, the situation has become more worrisome, given that as the days go by, more canceled flights are added.
For now, it is known that another 300 citizens with scheduled flights to Argentina, between residents and tourists, are waiting for their trips to be rescheduled or, at least, for a response from the company.
Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of the Embassy, priority is given in the flights to the transfer of the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly and families with minors.
What happened to Viva Air
After the company declared bankruptcy, Avianca, which manages 32% of the market, signed an agreement with the airline in April 2022 to carry out a business integration process to rescue it, but Civil Aeronautics rejected this request in November of last year.
As a result, since the beginning of February, the airline with 15% of the market in Colombia and a subsidiary in Peru filed for insolvency under Colombian law and after appealing Aerocivil’s decision, they hope that it can give a favorable response to your request.
