A plane of the Colombian airline Ultra Air.Eduardo Sanchez (RR SS)
As a
déjà vu
of the Viva Air crisis, another Colombian low-cost airline, Ultra Air, has canceled several of its flights this Thursday.
In addition, it paused the sale of air tickets until ―for now― April 30 and the Superintendency of Transportation adopted measures to prevent the economic problems that affect that company from ending up affecting its customers and suppliers.
The state entity in charge of supervising transport companies explained, in a statement, that it issued the measures "because the airline has low liquidity, which makes it difficult to commit to short-term obligations, generating a risk of default with its creditors." ”.
The Supertransporte demanded that Ultra present how it will continue to function, with a schedule of its commercial flights by day and route, with data on the plane and the crew of each trip, in addition to clarifying how it will guarantee that passengers with tickets already purchased fly in the event of to suspend its operations.
In turn, the Civil Aeronautics, another state entity in charge of the operation of the aeronautical market, explained in a statement that "it found that the Ultra Air company continues to fly, with a partial reduction in its capacity for technical reasons."
He explained that he maintains a "priority monitoring of the situation generated by the effects that may have occurred in the last hours, derived from the operations of the Ultra Air airline."
At that time the president of the company, William Shaw, explained to the newspaper
El Colombiano
that although they had a bad financial situation, with more liabilities than assets, "the company's financial indicators are not very different from those of many airlines in the world in the last year."
And he argued that they were affected by a blow from the Viva crisis: "Viva's situation has put us under a lot of pressure with the current suppliers, they are nervous, many of them are asking us for prepayment of fuel, prepayment of services and others" .
The low-cost airline, which has routes between 10 Colombian cities and an 8% share of the Colombian market in just one year of operation, has been facing economic difficulties for several weeks.
10 days ago, after the Viva Air crisis, the station W Radio revealed that Ultra was close to ceasing its operations.
The airline issued a statement denying the information.
"Ultra Air is backed by solid investors who believe in the company's project and who are aware of the current challenges in the sector," he said.
Ultra's problems are part of a series of broader movements in the aeronautical sector in Colombia.
This Wednesday it was learned that the possibility of the Chilean airline JetSmart, the third largest in that country and which is in the process of merging with American Airlines, to buy Ultra failed.
In a document, he explained that, after analyzing the details of the operation, "he withdrew his intention to purchase Ultra Air."
That decision came the same day that Aerocivil approved the merger between Avianca and another low-cost airline, Viva Air.
Utra opposed this integration and in October Avianca denounced it criminally for procedural fraud, pointing out that it opposed its integration with the
low cost
Viva Air with false information.
Ultra Air ―or, rather, its representatives― argued before Aerocivil that these two airlines already operated together, defining routes and fares irregularly.
JetSmart, which in February also said it was interested in buying Viva Air, for now only operates flights from Bogotá and Medellín to Santiago de Chile, and from Cali to Santiago and Antofagasta.
But at the beginning of March, the process began for Aerocivil to approve the operation of 27 national routes in Colombia.
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