:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/M7CWGSSZPVBEVFJ7I5CZYVCBRE.jpg "Government Petro does not rule out taking control of Viva Air after massive flight cancellations")
Around noon on March 1, the extraordinary meeting that the President Gustavo Petro led the Viva Air situation, in which Aerocivil, MinComercio and MinTransporte, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce and the Protection of Competition. No airline representatives were present at the meeting.
Viva Air crisis: passengers bound for Mexico and Peru will be able to access other alternatives, the Colombian Ministry of Transport has announced
With Aerocivil, the Ministry of Transport has assured that there will be routes with Avianca and Latam at no additional cost for those traveling to Lima, Mexico City and Cancun.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the first action to be taken is a administrative investigation by the Superintendence of Transport due to the cancellation of flights that has been taking place since February 27.
In a statement, SuperTransporte said: “By resolution no. 637 of March 1, 2023, the Superintendence of Transport found the merits of opening an administrative investigation and filing a complaint against the airline Fast Colombia-Viva, for the alleged violation of literal a. of number 1 of article 9 of law 105 of 1993, due to the sudden suspension of its operations from 11:00 p.m. on February 27, 2023, affecting users who had already issued and confirmed reservations.
Aerocivil responded to Viva Air which justified the suspension of its operations by not integrating with Avianca
He pointed out that the process was conducted according to the stipulated guidelines and announced that they will guarantee the rights of users.
At the end of the administrative investigation, if SuperTransporte finds Viva Air guilty, ita will penalize the company between 1 and 2,000 legal monthly minimum wage in force (smlmv), as established by the Colombian Aeronautical Regulations.
In addition, the airline Viva Air It has a period of three days to respond to its users affected by the cancellation of flights.
Viva Air assured that the suspension of operations is not a strategy to put pressure on the national government
Through a statement on its official Twitter account, the airline assured that it was going through a financial crisis and that it was avoiding affecting travelers at all costs.
“(…) ordering the said airline to draw up a User Service Plan with the Telephone Service: (+ 57) 601 3526700 Administrative Headquarters Green Number: 018000 915 615 www.supertransporte.gov.co in order to deal with the situation submitted with this decision. periodic delivery of the PQRD submitted by users is ordered, the publication of a press release specifying the service circuits and that the compensatory measures and the refund measures which may apply are being implemented,” they added in the press release.
It should be noted that the The Ministry of Transport does not rule out the takeover of the company, especially if Aerocivil – if it does not agree with the integration of Viva Air and Avianca– in order to puser protection and more than 1,700 workers of the airline low cost.
Through a video, the CEO of Viva Air Colombia, Francisco Lalindepointed out that less than 200 airline factory employees have accepted the voluntary retirement schemewhile the other will continue to work until the government of President Gustavo Petro dictate the fate of this company.
“Meeting the President Petro with his ministers and the Aerocivil to talk about the future of VivaAir, and viva employees opted for continuity as evidenced by the fact that the factory with 1,250 workers less than two hundred took advantage of the voluntary retirement plan we announced yesterday; We employees believe in the future of Viva, in the low-cost model and in the airline that represents Colombians,” he said. Francisco Lalinde.
Additionally, the CEO pointed out that Viva takes “the best decision” and the union between this company and Avianca is authorized. “We hope that the government will make the best decision by approving the alliance”
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