Colombian authorities announced this Wednesday that Viva Air will be investigated for the sudden suspension of its operationswhich caused a crisis in the country's air transport that gradually began to normalize amid the uncertainty experienced by thousands of passengers trapped in airports.
The situation has also affected travelers from other countries, such as Peru and Argentina, where authorities are working to assist their citizens who they were stranded at airports in Colombia and the Caribbean.
Viva Air, created in 2009, faces a serious financial crisis and decided Suspend your national and international flights after authorities rejected its request to integrate with Avianca, causing an airline crisis that spread to other countries, especially Peru.
The company, which has its operations center in José María Córdova Airport in Medellínoperates 35 internal routes and flights to Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
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administrative inquiry
The Transport Superintendence decided to open an administrative investigation and filed a lawsuit against Viva Air for “presumed non-compliance” with the law “due to the sudden suspension of its operations” on February 27 “affecting users who have already issued and confirmed reservations.”
The entity also imposed an “administrative measure” in which it determines that Viva “develop a care plan for users in order to deal with the situation presented with this decision”.
Transport Superintendent Lucy Ospina Arias said she seeks to protect 466,604 users who had reservations confirmed by February 27, the date Viva operations were suspended.
He also verified on the airline's website that tickets continued to be sold, and that for the same date 5,750 reservations had already been sold.
The Minister of Transport, Guillermo Reyes, assured that, if necessary, the air market can intervene to ensure that aviation market players commit to continuing to operate under conditions that benefit users.
Measures from Peru and Argentina
The Government of Peru announced on Tuesday the opening of administrative proceedings against VIVA Air for “failure to provide coverage service for its routes to and from” the Peruvian territory that left hundreds of passengers stranded at the international airports of Lima and Cuzco.
As a parallel response, the airlines Latam and Sky reported that will provide support to around 300 stranded passengersaccording to data from the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi), due to the suspension of Viva Air flights between February 28th and March 2nd.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Argentines are trapped in Colombia by decision of the airline that they can return to their country of origin.
According to a statement from Itamaraty, that country's embassy in Bogotá managed to serve more than 100 citizens “offering them to reschedule their flights at no additional cost” on two Avianca flights.
return to calm
Calm, in turn, gradually returned to airports this Wednesday after Tuesday's tense day for the protests of thousands of people affected by what happened to Viva Air.
At the moment, the solution that has been offered to Viva passengers who were unable to fly is to be relocated to planes from other companies, something that is proving to be problematic because there is not enough for everyone and the waits are long.
The Civil Aeronautics (Aerocivil) announced the day before that the airlines Latam, Avianca and Satena “offer alternative transport on shared routes, according to seat availability, at no additional cost».
However, Andrés Cáceres, who was returning with five other people from Cancún (Mexico) to Lima, with a stopover in Medellín, remains in the latter city waiting for the flight to be changed to another company, but they have already warned him that there is no availability at all. Monday, so he is trying to buy another ticket to return to his country as soon as possible.
Patricia Nava, Peru's consul in Medellín, explained to EFE that they have a preliminary list of 100 Peruvians affected by Tuesday's flightswhich will increase this Wednesday.
Source: EFE