Avianca: "No strike has lasted 52 days on another airline in the world"

Avianca airline president Hernán Rincón said the company lost $ 250 million with the 52-day strike the pilots made last year and that Oct. 1 the company will 100% compliant. itineraries with all the places occupied (Avianca collapses its profit in the first quarter due to strikes)

"The strike was the most unfortunate event in the history of Avianca, the 39, business history in Colombia.I do not want to say it, but I am the president of a 99-year-old company that has experienced a 52-day strike "" As you the know, this went to the Supreme Court, which ruled on two occasions in our favor and declared it illegal for two different reasons.This gives rise to disciplinary processes.They finished and they left more or less We have a shortage of one hundred pilots and a number of actions, we are hiring new co-pilots, who have already completed their training process and who are currently working in. Secondly, we are working with Boeing. limited but important pilots for the 787. Third We started flying bigger planes on the same roads to get more chairs. And four: we contract the so-called wet lease, and it is that you hire a company that brings your plane and crew to make an itinerary on behalf of Avianca, "he added. [19659002ThelostmillionairesaysRincónwillrecoverinthelongrun"TodaywehavedomesticactivitiesinCentralAmericaColombiaPeruEcuadorandBrazilWearestartingouractivitiesinArgentinaandwearelookingforawaytoentertheMexicandomesticmarketIcansaythatweareveryadvancedWhenwereachthisgoalwewillbeflyinginallLatinAmericanmarketswiththeexceptionofVenezuelawhereIretiredforobviousreasonsofsafetyandfunctioningeightmonthsagoheexplainsinadialoguewithElEspectadorpilotstop)

The entry of Avianca on the Mexican market will go through an agreement with a local actor to create Avianca México. Asked to find out if he would finally reach an agreement with United, he said the negotiation took a year

"We had to learn because at Avianca we had never done anything. alliance of this nature.The advantage that this represents for our customers is the reason why we do it, because we are going to have a virtual business between the two companies, only for the passenger experience, we think that it is one.It is no capital investment, there is no common owners.The details are not easy.How are we? From the point of view of business, 99% were in agreement, a minor point is missing, but it is not easy and, secondly, I say it respectfully, the lawyers have arrived, but he says that customers can enjoy more destinations, better connections and better prices.

"I can sit with the g and tell them: you have a flight from Newark to Bogota at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, if you move it at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I can connect you to Lima or Mompox or elsewhere. I can not do that today. Routes, connections, frequencies, everything will be agreed. We can even go to Newark because everything United is going to do. And vice versa: if I have 30 flights to Miami and 5 of them, then I'd better do it all. "

Rincón pointed out that Avianca would add roads." There are 787 more this year to go directly to Munich in November, as we already cover London, Madrid and Barcelona very well. But we were missing a part of Europe. We will open Bogotá-Corozal, Lima-Mendoza, Lima-Orlando, Salvador-Cartagena and also direct Chicago. We have just arrived two A330-300, the first there is in Latin America, are more than 30 passengers that the A330-200, flying to New York, arrived seven Neos, with sophisticated engines, silent, less consumption and less CO2 production, the 321 Neo arrive two 787. All are not incremental, we will remove old and replace them with new ones. "