Colombian authorities announced this Wednesday that Viva Air will be investigated for the sudden suspension of its operationswhich caused a crisis in air transport in the country 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 accommodate 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 to Suspend your domestic 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 Cordova Airport in Medellinoperates 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 inquiry and filed a lawsuit against Viva Air for “presumed non-compliance” with the law “due to the sudden suspension of its operations” on February 27th “affecting users who have already placed and confirmed reservations.”
The entity also imposed an “administrative measure” in which it determines that Viva “developing a care plan for users in order to deal with the situation presented with this decision”.
The superintendent of Transport, Lucy Ospina Arias, said that she seeks to protect 466,604 users who had confirmed reservations until February 27, the date of suspension of Viva operations.
He also checked 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 are committed to continuing to operate under conditions that benefit users.
Measures of Peru and Argentina
The Government of Peru announced on Tuesday the opening of an administrative proceeding 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, airlines Latam and Sky informed that will support the approximately 300 passengers strandedaccording 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 28 and March 2.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Argentines are trapped in Colombia by decision of the airline that they will be able to return to their country of origin.
According to a statement from the Itamaraty, the embassy of that country in Bogotá was able to serve more than 100 citizens “offering them to reschedule their flights at no additional cost” on two Avianca flights.
calm down
Calm, in turn, returned little by little this Wednesday to the airports after the tense day of Tuesday to the protests of thousands of people affected by what happened to Viva Air.
At the moment, the solution offered to Viva passengers who were unable to fly is to relocate on planes belonging to other companies, something that is proving to be problematic because it is not enough for everyone and the waits are long.
The Aeronáutica Civil (Aerocivil) announced the day before that the airlines Latam, Avianca and Satena “offer alternative transport on shared routes, subject to availability of seats, at no additional cost».
However, Andrés Cáceres, who was returning with five other people from Cancún (Mexico) to Lima, with a stopover in Medellín, is still in the latter city waiting for the flight to be changed to another company, but he has already been warned that there is no availability on the airline Monday, so he is trying to buy another ticket to go back to his country as soon as possible.
Patricia Nava, Consul of Peru 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