evDen evE nAkLiYAT<\/a> including flights to Colombian capital Bogota as well as Medellin and Cali.<\/p>\n“We believe that a merger between JetSMART and Viva Air will allow us to maintain the ultra-low-cost model in Colombia, helping to continue offering more routes at lower prices,” JetSMART Chief Executive Estuardo Ortiz said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Colombia’s civil aviation regulator initially rejected a proposed merger between Avianca and Viva in November on the grounds that it posed risks to competition in the sector and the welfare of consumers.<\/p>\n
Avianca and Viva filed an appeal the same month, proposing alternatives such as yielding some routes and granting better landing and take-off schedules to competitors.<\/p>\n
The regulator in January annulled the merger, citing procedural irregularities, and began the process anew without either company having to reapply.<\/p>\n
A possible merger between JetSMART and Viva would offer the best conditions for competition in the market, Ortiz said, adding the airlines do not have competing routes in Colombia.<\/p>\n
Avianca and Viva did not respond immediately to requests for comment on JetSMART’s proposed deal.<\/p>\n
Viva faces a complex financial situation due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year’s rise in fuel prices and the devaluation of the Colombian peso.(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Jamie Freed)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BOGOTA, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Indigo Partners-backed budget carrier JetSMART Airlines said on Tuesday that it wanted to buy Colombian low-cost carrier Viva Air, EVDen eve NaKLiyAt in a move that if successful would scupper Viva’s plans to merge with Colombian flag carrier Avianca. Chile-based JetSMART Airlines said in a statement that it planned to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23369,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5078],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72432,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72431\/revisions\/72432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.announcement.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}