Avianca

The history of Colombia's Avianca Airlines could be considered as colorful as their red and white airplanes. Avianca was only the second airline ever to operate in the history of aviation, after KLM of the Netherlands, and the first one to fly in the Americas.

Avianca Boeing 767 at Los Angeles International Airport in 1992, with Air New Zealand Boeing 747 nearby

Avianca was formed in 1940 by the merger of SCADTA and Servicio Aereo Colombiano. Over the decades Avianca expanded their routes to include all of South America, as well as Central America, the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico and parts of Europe. Avianca's fleet has included such types as the Boeing 727, Boeing 707, Boeing 747, Boeing 757, and Boeing 767. Nowadays, they have retired the 727's and 747's but have added the Fokker 50, MD-87, MD-88's to their fleet.

As Colombia struggled to fight drug trafficking in the 1980s, Avianca also had trying times. The airline suffered a few accidents which were arranged by rival gangs whenever they knew that someone they wanted killed was on board an Avianca flight (See: Avianca Flight 410). It should be noted, however, that in the great majority of these accidents, Avianca was not to blame, as investigations almost always pointed to other causes and not the Avianca planes themselves. Avianca Flight 011, a Boeing 747, crashed shortly before landing at Barajas International Airport in Madrid, Spain on September of 1983.

On January 25, 1990, Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing 707-321 jet en route from Bogota to New York City via Medellin, crashed into Long Island after running out of fuel in a series of hold-up patterns, killing 73 of the 158 people on board.

After the death or arrest of various traffickers at the hands of Colombian police, Avianca has regained its status as one of the safest airlines in the world and is one of Latin America's leading airline companies. It also owns SAM, another Colombian airline that is striving to succeed with the help of Avianca.

In December 2003, Avianca announced that a pilots' strike cost the airline about 3 million US dollars.

As of May 2004, Avianca has an average operation of 290 daily flights to 18 domestic and 17 international destinations, including South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, the United States and Spain [1] (http://www.avianca.us/contenido/articulo.asp?chapter=13&article=71).

Avianca Airlines uses the IATA designator code AV and the ICAO designator code AVA.

Bankruptcy

Avianca declared bankruptcy in March of 2003. Its current debt is $446 million. $145 is owed to Caxdac, the pilots' pension and insurance fund, $102 is owed directly to outstanding pensions, $34 million is for other creditors, and $165 million is for debts related to the current restructuring.

Continental Airlines placed a bid to acquire Avianca and combine it with its Panamanian unit, Copa Airlines. On November 17, 2004 the newspaper El Tiempo reported that this bid was superseded by a proposal by the Group OceanAir/Grupo Synergy, owned by the Brazilian entrepreneur Germán Efromovich, to invest $63 million. The creditors backed this plan with more than 99% of the vote, and the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York has approved it. OceanAir would take 75% of the company, and the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia) would retain 25% ownership, down from the current 50% it holds, with an option to sell out completely after 3 years have passed since emerging from bankruptcy. Valores Bavaria, the owner of the Colombian brewery Bavaria, would sell its current 50% holding. The pilots, who presented their own letter of intent to the court on November 16, object to the OceanAir plan, which could be held up in Colombian courts.

External links

• Avianca Airlines (http://www.avianca.com)
• Avianca Airlines history (http://www.avianca.us/contenido/articulo.asp?chapter=45&article=88)
• Avianca Airlines crashes (http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi_bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Avianca)
• Report on the OceanAir/Grupo Synergy buyout and the pilots' union reaction, from El Tiempo (In Spanish (http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/economia/2004-11-17/ARTICULO-WEB-_NOTA_INTERIOR-1899767.html)

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