The more-than-two-week-old strike is being carried out by the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (ACDAC), which counts more than 700 of Avianca’s roughly 1,300 domestic pilots as its members and is seeking higher wages, among other concessions, from the Bogotá-based airline

Avianca (NYSE: AVH), which has considered the strike illegal since before it began because the pilots provide what it classifies as an “essential public service,” instigated the grievance that the judicial body ruled upon. The carrier now has legal standing to fire the pilots if they do not return to work, although ACDAC may still appeal the decision.

Adding to Avianca’s leverage was an approval granted earlier this week by Colombia’s civil aviation authority, Aerocivil, that will allow the airline to bring in foreign pilots to command its aircraft on a temporary basis.

Since the strike began 17 days ago, Avianca, the nation’s largest airline, has been operating at limited capacity. It has canceled thousands of flights due to the pilot shortage, leaving the entire Colombian air travel network overwhelmed and unable to meet passenger demand in recent weeks. Medellín-based Bancolombia estimated that Avianca has been losing $2.5 million USD in sales everyday since the strike began.

Thus far, the labor standoff remains at an impasse. In the day following the ruling, Avianca continued to cancel flights across the country. More than 10 flights originally scheduled for Saturday, for example, were cancelled on the route between Bogotá and the coastal city of Barranquilla, which welcomed an influx of travelers this week to watch the Colombian national team play a World Cup qualifying football match.

In a statement, Avianca offered an “invitation” to the pilots to return to work in hopes that the decision moves ACDAC to end the strike and re-engage in negotiations, which have continued since the strike began in a limited, non-fruitful manner with assistance from the Colombian Ministry of Transportation.

“It is our obligation to focus all our attention on our customers and normalizing operations promptly,” said Hernán Rincón, president and CEO of Avianca SA. “We urge the pilots of ACDAC to return to work and comply with the legal decisions immediately in order to end this strike that has so affected the connectivity of the country and done much damage to travelers and the company.”

Photo credit: Avianca

Following the new resolution approved this morning by the nation’s Civil Aeronautics (Aerocivil) authority, which was “provisionally established for a period of no more than three months,” the Bogota-based carrier announced that it will immediately begin bringing in pilots and crew members. Avianca says it plans initially draw upon those that already work abroad for the airline, which is among the largest in Latin America with flights to most of the largest cities in the region as well as major airports in the Untied States and Europe.

“With this decision, once again the Colombian state is on the side of the company that violates labor rights and not the rights of workers.” – ACDAC

While finding pilots from abroad to operate in the country won’t bring operations back to normal, it will make “it easier for us to resume a large part of the flights in Colombia,” said Hernán Rincón, president and CEO of Avianca Holdings.

The executive added that Avianca is “also checking the availability of pilots at companies that have qualified crews to reinforce the operation.” In addition, the airline has already begun a recruitment effort to hire new Colombian pilots who are not members of the union that has gone on strike. After “continuous calls made by Avianca,” said Rincón, the carrier has already identified “more than 1,800 candidates that are in the selection process.”

The striking Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (ACDAC), which counts some 700 of Avianca’s roughly 1,300 pilots among its members, has renounced this new measure approved by Aerocivil as illegal and in violation of various rules governing labor and aviation law.

“With this decision, once again the Colombian state is on the side of the company that violates labor rights and not the rights of workers,” said ACDAC in a statement. The union added that it “will advance the administrative and legal processes” at its disposal and called on pilots across the region to maintain “solidarity and support to the Colombian pilots on strike” by rejecting “the call by Avianca to come and supplant our workforce.”

For its part, Avianca has called the ACDAC strike illegal since before it began, and a Bogotá court is expected to issue a forthcoming ruling on the matter as soon as this week. While workers are generally afforded the right to go on strike under Colombian law, Avianca maintains that this does not apply in the case of its pilots because air travel is an “essential public service.”

The authorization will make “it easier for us to resume a large part of the flights in Colombia,” said Hernán Rincón, head of Avianca Holdings.

Aerocivil, which stressed that the newly approved “measure seeks to ensure the mobility and air connectivity of the country in extraordinary situations,” has attached several limitations to the new regulation.

Principally, the number of foreign pilots utilized must not exceed 10% of the total number of Colombian pilots working for the company. Foreign pilots may also only be used as flight commanders when no qualified Colombian pilots are available to operate the route, stated Aerocivil.

Additionally, any foreign pilot brought in must show proof that their license is accredited by the International Civil Aviation Organization and that they are proficient in either Spanish or English. If the pilot only speaks English fluently, they will only be allowed to operate flights that take off and land at international airports within Colombia. Foreign pilots also may not be flight commanders on any route that requires “special conditions or training,” according to Aerocivil.

The increasingly contentious strike began nearly two weeks ago after ACDAC called off labor negotiations with Avianca in which it was seeking higher wages for its pilots, among other concessions. The two sides have continued to engage in dialogue, facilitated by the Ministry of Transportation, but thus far the revised proposals submitted have not been sufficient to end the impasse.

Since the strike began, thousands of flights have already been cancelled in Colombia, where travelers are now suffering from the lack of air travel options now that the country’s largest airline is operating at limited capacity.

Photo: An Avianca 787 on the tarmac at José María Córdova International Airport near Medellín in Colombia. (Credit: Avianca)

In a note to investors, the Medellin-based Bancolombia, the nation’s largest financial institution, stressed that its figures are something of a “back on the envelope calculation” although they are based upon “information provided by management.”

The bank’s analysts have classified the hit taken so far as “material but not critical” in the short term.

Moreover, the bank’s analysts have classified the hit taken so far as “material but not critical” in the short term and “not material for the long term” when it comes to the company’s annual results and beyond.

Before the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (ACDAC), which represents some 700 of the Bogotá-based airline’s roughly 1,300 pilots, called a strike over its wage dispute with the carrier, Bancolombia had projected Avianca’s average daily sales during the third quarter to come in at $12.9 million USD. That means that an estimated drop of $2.5 million USD per day represents a 19.4% decrease, per Bancolombia’s calculations.

Weighing other factors — including Avianca’s variable and fixed operating costs — the bank estimates this shortfall equates to an overall net income loss of $1.5 million USD per day. And this figure does not even take into account “potential cost increases linked to ticket refunds, passenger transfers to other airlines, or costs related to planes sat idle at airports.”

A request for comment sent to Avianca to verify these financial figures was not immediately returned.

Avianca has continued to call the strike, which has led to the cancellation of around 2,000 flights and affected some 200,000 people, an illegal action. While employees generally have the right to go on strike in Colombia, a 1990s law deemed it illegal for unions and workers that provide an “essential public service.”

The Ministry of Transportation has continued to get the two sides to work toward an agreement. The possibility of an arbitration ruling now looms to end the stalemate as the nation’s air travel system continues to face dire stress with its largest player operating at less than half strength.

READ MORE: Avianca Reactivates Tickets Sales Despite Massive Disruptions from Pilot Strike

While the strike is aggravating public officials, air travelers, and rival airlines dealing with the complications from so many cancelled Avianca flights, the carrier is trying to accommodate one passionate segment of fliers: football fans.

The strike has hit at a particularly bad time for those looking to attend the World Cup qualifying game between Colombian and Paraguay in Barranquilla next week. While all matches played by the national team are highly anticipated affairs, this one is bigger than most. It will be the final qualifier played in the country, and a victory for “Los Cafeteros” will guarantee Colombia a spot in the World Cup competition next summer in Russia.

To deal with the increased demand for travel to Barranquilla, Avianca is reportedly operating 10 extra flights that will add 1,900 seats in the lead up to the game on Thursday, October 5. According to the local media outlet El Heraldo, nine of those flights will transport fans from Bogotá to Barranquilla and one has been added on the Medellín-to-Barranquilla route.

(Photo credit: Avianca)

Those searching for flights online have received error messages such as “We cannot process your request at this time” or “Internal Server Error.” Further complicating the situation is a global flight check-in system outage that has reportedly affected some 125 airlines across the world and caused confusion at airports from Washington to England to Singapore.

The complications come just hours after Colombia’s largest airline put out a statement saying that, “after analyzing the information for flights operated during these days of contingency, the airline has decided to gradually open sales to meet the passengers’ needs.”

As technology allows, Avianca plans to resume selling tickets for all its domestic and international routes, including those connecting through its hubs in Lima and San Salvador, both of which it says “are operating normally.”

The ongoing strike by the Colombian Civil Aviators Association (ACDAC) has already forced the cancellation of 1,954 flights and affected 183,000 people, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

ACDAC, which represents around 700 of Avianca’s 1,300 pilots, called off talks in mid-September, with its leaders announcing that the union would resort to a strike due to the carrier’s inability to meet its requirements. The union’s primary demand is for Colombian pilots to receive a salary bump to put their earnings on par with foreign pilots working for the airline, in addition to improvements to other working conditions, according to ACDAC.

According to El Tiempo, ACDAC presented a new labor proposal with lower salary demands to the government during a meeting yesterday with Colombian Labor Minister Griselda Restrepo at the Casa de Nariño in Bogotá. An arbitration

In recent days, the government has urged the union and Avianca to double their efforts to reach an accord as the Ministry of Labor continues to mediate dialogue between the two sides. “As long as this space for open dialogue remains, we are optimistic that progress will be achieved,” said Restrepo earlier this week in a press briefing.

Other airlines in Colombia are also hoping for an end to a strike that is straining air travel conditions across the country, according to El Tiempo.

Avianca continues to categorize the strike by the pilots union as illegal, as in its view air travel qualifies as an essential public service that cannot be disrupted by a labor dispute under a law passed in the 1990s.

Due to the persistent strike, Avianca has also waived change fees through the end of November for passengers who have to reschedule their flights.

Passengers will still have to pay for any difference in fare and the fee waiver does not apply to flights between October 6–17, according to the carrier. To be eligible for the fee-less flight change, travelers can contact Avianca’s call center or enter a physical sales locations. If the original ticket was purchased through a travel agency, the change must be made by that same travel agency, the company stated.

The strike, which could begin this week, perhaps as soon as September 20, is the result of an inability of the two sides to reach an agreement over wages and benefits, said the ACDAC head on Friday after breaking off negotiations. Discussions had been ongoing since August 23.

The union — which includes some 700 of Avianca’s roughly 1,300 pilots — has cited various concerns, including aviation security issues, but chiefly feels aggrieved that its Colombian members make 30% to 70% less than Avianca pilots in other countries, according to ACDAC head Jaime Hernandez. During negotiations, the union has sought to end this “wage discrimination,” according to ACDAC, as well as reduce the workload of its members.

According to Avianca, enacting a strike would be illegal. While the Bogotá-based carrier acknowledges that employees have a right to strike that is guaranteed under the Colombian constitution, it says that this doesn’t apply in the case of “essential public services.” The airline, citing a 1995 law (“Law 336”), argues that air transportation classifies as an essential service.

“We call on ACDAC’s directors and pilots who are part of this association to act sensibly, recognize the efforts that have been made, and not resort to extralegal recourses,” said Eduardo Mendoza, vice president of safety, ethics, and compliance at Avianca.

The airline, which said in a statement that it “categorically rejects the call for a strike,” maintains that it presented ACDAC with “more than 20 proposals to extend the benefits received by Colombian pilots” and that the union “did not accept any of the proposals and unilaterally ended” the discussions.

Avianca further criticized the union’s decision since it “prevents the parties from using the 20-day extension allowed by law to reach an agreement.”

Nationwide, teachers have held demonstrations and conducted public campaigns for the past 36 days as protracted negotiations proved unable to end the impasse. But the battle, which was elevated on February 28 when the Colombian Education Workers Federation (FECODE) submitted a petition of grievances to the government, ended yesterday with an agreement signed in Bogotá by Education Minister Yaneth Giha and FECODE head Carlos Rivas.

Photo: Education Minister Yaneth Giha and FECODE head Carlos Rivas sign an agreement in Bogotá to end a national teachers’ strike that lasted more than a month. (Credit: Presidencia de la República)

As part of the agreement, teachers will receive salary increases of 6% in 2018, 11% in 2019, and 15% in 2020. “This is an effort,” said Giha, “to continue closing an historical gap that the country has had with our teachers,” who she called “the backbone of education.”

The top official in the Ministry of Education also called on the country’s education secretaries to adjust the school calendar to ensure that “the eight million children and young people affected by this strike” will make up all the class time they missed. Giha, who took over last year after former education minister Gina Parody resigned following the failure of the “Yes” peace vote campaign she helped lead, said that FECODE ensured the government that its members are prepared to teach the lost hours of class time.

Additionally, the government also pledged to invest more into early-childhood education, including a mandate that all public schools must offer free preschool by 2024, and help consolidate the peace process through human rights and civics-focused coursework in the a new program called “School as a Territory of Peace.” In a statement, Giha also pointed to 15 unspecified initiatives in the agreement to address education policy, union guarantees, teachers’ health, welfare, and the creation of a new education commission.

Other concerns previously raised by FECODE, however, have not been addressed, including the teachers’ call to overhaul Colombia’s prevailing two-shift daily schedule for students in favor of a full-day system. Matters may further be complicated by the fact that two-term President Juan Manuel Santos has less than a year remaining before the 2018 presidential election, which means new leadership will arrive well before many of the softer, non-binding intentions of the agreement can come to fruition.

Comments from the Ministry of Education highlight the need for an ongoing dialogue between the department, FECODE, and Congress to continue addressing the flaws in the nation’s education systems. She said that this must “be a broad, unprecedented discussion, which will also involve the Congress, mayors, governors, and other actors in the education system.”

Ultimately, the current leadership of the Ministry of Education proved willing to do enough to end the strike while not over-committing future resources that the current administration will not control. “The priority of the national government was always to reach an agreement that recognizes the work of teachers and the indispensable role of education in the development of the country and that, at the same time, would be responsible with public finances,” said Giha.

The government will invest 1.5 trillion pesos ($518 million USD) into programs meant to improve water services, sanitation, healthcare, education, housing, and other social initiatives. While local stakeholders in Buenaventura, who were protesting generally poor conditions and repeatedly unfulfilled funding pledges from policymakers in Bogotá, have agreed to halt their daily demonstrations, street blockades, and port disruptions, the formal bill to secure the funding is expected to be submitted to Congress on July 20.

The first priority will be improving water and sanitation systems in the city of more than 360,000, with the government agreeing to invest roughly $120 million USD (350 billion pesos) to ensure that the entire city will have uninterrupted water service within the next two years.

Currently, various areas of Buenaventura face interruptions routinely due to the lack of water treatment facilities. Launching two plants, Venice and Escalerete, will be job one now that the strike is over, according to the agreement. Another seven water work projects within the so-called “Plan Pazcifico” will also be implemented, said the office of the president.

“This step is important,” said Buenaventura Mayor Eliécer Arboleda Torres, calling these “works that will bring dignified living conditions to the population.”

Under the agreement, reached amid demands from the striking teachers union Fecode, more than $58 million USD (170 billion pesos) will be invested in education programs. Among other initiatives, this will pay for hiring more early education teachers and a salary increase. “We have increased teacher salaries by 12 points above that of other public servants to recognize their work and importance,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos after the deal was completed.

The health sector of Buenaventura, the capital of the department of Valle del Cauca, will receive more than $12 million USD (36.5 billion pesos). The funds will largely go toward the District Hospital of Buenaventura, particularly its intensive care unit, while additional resources will fund the construction of urban health centers and clinics.

More than $10 million USD (30 billion pesos) will be invested into housing, including budget earmarks for free housing.

Almost $210,000 USD (600 million pesos) will go toward the planned reconstruction of the city’s Klino Salazar Marino Stadium, which will come from the national Coldeportes agency and the federal government

The initial budget calls for an immediate $76 million USD in funding. The entirety of the agreed-up sums will fall under the new Autonomous Heritage Fund for Buenaventura, a condition of the deal that Congress will soon create and approve. The office of the president says it will submit the formal bill to the legislature on July 20.

After some 14 hours of negotiations, today’s agreement to stop the strike was signed by Buenaventura Mayor Eliécer Arboleda Torres, Valle del Cauca Governor Dilian Francisca Toro, Colombian Minister of the Interior Guillermo Rivera, and Minister of Environment Luis Gilberto Murillo. Twelve representatives of the Comité Ejecutivo del Paro Cívico, which led the strike, also signed a deal overseen by guarantors from the United Nations, the national Senate, and local politicians.

At least 41 people were detained and 10 police officers were injured during protests that lasted for more than three weeks, according to Colombia Reports.

Photo: Stakeholders from the national government and Buenaventura sign the agreement to end the strike today. (Credit: Presidencia de la República)

The disruptions have mainly taken place in Orito, San Miguel, Puerto Caicedo, and Puerto Asis, says Ecopetrol, with road blocks and other roadway infrastructure issues occurring near the company’s fields and oil facilities.

Residents in La Independencia, in the larger town of Puerto Caicedo, destroyed the main bridge that permitted passage to the firm’s Mansoyá field, one of its key oil production areas in Putumayo. Ecopetrol says that protesters used chainsaws to make the bridge impassable and then set up a barrier of “women and children” to prevent officials from making any repairs.

“Ecopetrol deplores these acts that constitute a clear violation of human rights since they generate risks to people and the environment, and affect the production of a department where almost 4.5% of the nation’s oil production is extracted,” said Ecopetrol in a statement on the Putumayo situation.

It added that, “the company calls on communities to maintain relations of respect, tolerance and dialogue, and together build a healthy coexistence under a framework of compliance with rules and laws.”

Though the embroiled oil firm has added significant production over recent months, the 40,000 barrels per day from Putumayo still represent a significant percentage of its overall production. Taking full control of the Rubiales field in July and the addition of its share of the Gunflint offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico added more than 60,000 per day to its output this summer. Last week, Ecopetrol said that these gains had pushed it over the 500,000 barrel-per-day threshold.

When announcing its second-quarter results, Ecopetrol chief Juan Carlos Echeverry said the company plans to drill 80 wells in the rest of 2016. “We feel now at the company that we can emphasize promoting reserves and production,” said Echeverry, according to Reuters.

Photo: One of the roadblocks set up by locals protesting in Putumayo. (Credit: Ecopetrol)