In the future, Avianca says it will continue to serve routes to and from Peru through its airline subsidiaries in Colombia, El Salvador and Ecuador, once the restrictions imposed by the authorities under the current health emergency are lifted. For customers with valid tickets purchased directly to or from Peru, several exchange, reaccomodation and voucher options will be available.

Process implementation

A General Shareholders Meeting of Avianca Peru agreed to proceed with a voluntary liquidation and dissolution of Avianca Peru. Currently, the liquidation proceeding is in process of liquidating liabilities and assets of such entity. Such process is under the supervision of Estrategia Consultores S.A.C, the designated independent liquidator. Although the agreement of the General Shareholders’ Meeting has already been published, its registration in the Public
Registry of Peru is pending due to the fact the offices in which said registration must be made are closed due to the state of emergency in such country. Under this liquidation process, the payment of social benefits of the employees of Avianca Peru will have priority within the framework of the liquidation. Avianca Peru employs 906 employees.

The airline previously stopped paying debt and certain expenses and had warned that it did not have enough cash on hand to continue making payroll. Pilots in Peru have already initiated labor actions against the airline, and the carrier faces public opposition in Colombia to a direct government rescue.

Those with claims against Avianca may contact Avianca’s claims agent, Kurtzman Carson Consultants, at www.kccllc.net/avianca. Information is also available by calling (866) 967-1780 (U.S./Canada) or +1 (310) 751-2680 (International), as well as by email at www.kccllc.net/avianca/inquiry.

Due to this, a number of the pilots have filed actions against Avianca in Peruvian courts, says the attorney. Monteblanco states he is representing almost 20 pilots, but others may have retained separate counsel. The pilots and the airline initially agreed to a buyout of 3 annual salaries for Airbus A320 pilots and 7 annual salaries for Airbus A330 pilots, Monteblanco told Finance Colombia.

Avianca says that because of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic it should not have to pay the pilots according to the agreed terms. “On Friday, March 27, the company held a meeting with a group of workers who, within the framework of the Transformation Plan through which the company had been going through, had agreed to withdraw under a “voluntary retirement plan,” informing them that the fortuitous situation and force majeure due to the expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impact that this meant for Avianca Peru, forced us to withdraw the aforementioned agreement,” the airline told Finance Colombia in a written statement.

“For these reasons, it was indicated to [the pilots] that the situation described constitutes a fortuitous event and force majeure that forced us to nullify the individual Agreement on the termination of the employment relationship due to the acceptance of the voluntary retirement plan, which is why we proposed to conclude a termination agreement by mutual agreement, by which they ceased [employment] as of March 31, 2020 and Avianca Peru promised to pay them 1.5 remunerations per year worked, as well as the twelfths and thirtieths corresponding to the months and days worked, applying a maximum of 12 monthly salaries,” said the airline.

According to Monteblanco, in addition to reneging on the agreement, Avianca offered no distinct time frame for payment of the alternative agreement. For its part, Avianca says that some of the workers in Peru have accepted the alternate buyouts.

Financially troubled Avianca is embroiled in multiple corruption scandals involving bribes for the purchase of Airbus aircraft and improper perks to government officials. The airline has ceased paying dividends, debt, and leases and has been downgraded by ratings agencies such as Fitch which rates the company at C.

Below is the original (Spanish) statement shared by Avianca in its entirety:

Sobre convenio individual de extinción de la relación laboral por plan de retiro voluntario:

• El viernes 27 de marzo la Empresa mantuvo una reunión con un grupo de trabajadores que, en el marco del Plan de Transformación por el que venía atravesando la empresa, habían aceptado retirarse acogiéndose a un “plan de retiro voluntario”, comunicándoles que la coyuntura de caso fortuito y fuerza mayor configurada a partir de la expansión del COVID-19 y la afectación económica que implicaba ello para AVIANCA PERÚ, nos obligaba a dejar sin efecto el acuerdo mencionado.
• En esta reunión se les contextualizó que, el Gobierno, a través del Decreto Supremo No. 044-2020-PCM, dispuso que desde el día lunes 16 de marzo se suspendiera el transporte aéreo internacional, así como el transporte interprovincial de pasajeros a nivel nacional (medida que ha sido ampliada hasta el 12 de abril a través del Decreto Supremo No. 051-2020-PCM). Esta situación impide que AVIANCA PERÚ desarrolle su actividad principal y la oportunidad de la reactivación resultaba incierta.
• Adicionalmente, se les informó que la restricción al máximo de la ejecución de la actividad principal de AVIANCA PERU (el transporte de pasajeros por vía aérea) había venido afectando sus ingresos desde de febrero de 2020, llegando a niveles de una reducción en las ventas por transporte de pasajeros de más del 90% en marzo, situación que se estima que se prolongará durante los próximos meses.
• Por tales motivos, se les indicó que la situación descrita configura un evento de caso fortuito y fuerza mayor que nos obligaba a dejar sin efecto el Convenio individual de extinción de la relación laboral por acogimiento plan de retiro voluntario celebrado, razón por la que les propusimos celebrar un convenio de cese por mutuo acuerdo, por el cual cesaban al 31 de marzo de 2020 y AVIANCA PERÚ se comprometía a pagarles 1.5 remuneraciones por año laborado, así como los dozavos y treintavos que correspondiesen a los meses y días laborados, aplicando un máximo de 12 remuneraciones mensuales.
• A la fecha, un grupo de trabajadores se ha acogido a esta propuesta, incluyendo algunos pilotos, quiénes han reconocido el caso fortuito y la fuerza mayor que se presenta a nivel mundial y nacional, respectivamente.
• A los trabajadores que no aceptaron la nueva propuesta, mantienen su vínculo laboral con AVIANCA PERÚ, bajo la figura legal de suspensión perfecta de labores, la cual tiene por objeto preservar los puestos de trabajo ante una crisis económica de magnitud enorme y resultado incierto para la empresa, no obstante, ello, mantienen las mismas opciones que el resto de trabajadores.