Colombia’s Civil Aeronautics (Aerocivil) has again postponed the announcement of its decision on whether to approve the integration of Viva with Avianca, a process that has been delayed for seven months and led to the suspension of the ultra-low-cost airline’s flights two weeks ago, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
«The Air Transport Directorate of Aerocivil is processing the last phase of the analysis process of the projected integration between Avianca and Viva,» they said in a statement.
«Having studied and assessed the request of the intervening companies, the position of interested third parties and the elements that unions, citizens and the Superintendence of Transportation have provided up to this week, the Air Transport Directorate will announce the administrative decision to the interested parties and the country next Tuesday morning, March 21, 2023,» Aerocivil added.
The market expected a decision for this Thursday, and even Viva had previously issued a statement saying that «after more than seven months of waiting for a response from the Aerocivil, five of which were lost due to irregularities of the authority in the process, from Viva we express our expectation to know the final decision of the alliance with Avianca, which will be announced today in the afternoon, as indicated to the public, through various media, the Minister of Transport, Guillermo Reyes«.
«The decision, regardless of whether it is positive or negative, is what the company needs in order to have certainty about its future», they concluded.
To add more spice to the situation, in the late afternoon JetSMART announced the signing of an agreement with Ultra Air to initiate a due diligence process and acquire the company.
See also: JetSMART forgets Viva and now wants to buy Ultra Air
