QCOSTARICA – United and Delta are evaluating the possible purchase of Avianca, as the Latin American airline explores strategic options for a full or partial sale.
According to Bloomberg, Avianca, Colombia’s largest airline, said in May it would cut aircraft deliveries from Airbus by US$1.4 billion during the next 30 months as part of an effort to reduce indebtedness.
The Wall Street Journal says advisers to Avianca have distributed a document to potential bidders seeking a US$500 million capital injection. The process is in early stages and there may be no deal at all.
Avianca (acronym in Spanish for “Aerovías del Continente Americano S.A.”) has been the national airline and flag carrier of Colombia since December 1919 and now the world’s second oldest airline after KLM. It is the oldest airline in the Western Hemisphere.
In 2009, Avianca would merge with TACA, creating AviancaTaca, which instantly became one of the region’s largest airlines. TACA and all other AviancaTaca airlines, wich included LACSA (Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses) Costa Rica’s national airline that in 1999 becoming a subsidiary of Grupo TACA, changed their brand to Avianca on 28 May 2013.
Avianca, the second largest airline in Latin America, serves more than 100 destinations in 26 countries, with 176 airplanes operating 5,400 weekly departures, with hubs in Bogotá(Colombia), San Salvador (El Salvador), and Lima(Peru).
