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, in a move that if successful would scupper Viva’s plans to merge with Colombian flag carrier Avianca.<\/p>\n
Chile-based JetSMART Airlines said in a statement that it planned to open talks to buy the Colombian airline but it did not disclose how much it might pay to acquire Viva, nor its funding plans.<\/p>\n
JetSMART is part of private investor Indigo Partners’ portfolio of budget airlines alongside U. If you treasured this article and you would like to collect more info pertaining to dE<\/a> please visit our own page. S.-based Frontier Airlines, Europe’s Wizz Air and Mexico’s Volaris.<\/p>\n The Chilean carrier currently operates 79 routes across South America, 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<\/a> 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 jinispa.com<\/a> Viva filed an appeal the same month, n E<\/a> 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, 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 open talks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":884,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"dealstore":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/884"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2928,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions\/2928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gavki.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dealstore?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}