MÉRIDA, Mexico – The Colombian airline Avianca announced that it will not resume flights between Bogotá and Havana for now.
“The company recommends that customers keep their contact information updated in the reservation to facilitate communication if necessary,” the airline said in a statement.
The new postponement, after having announced in April that it would resume flights after four years without operating, is due to “operational issues.”
Avianca will refund customers who had already purchased tickets for the flights scheduled from July 2.
The now-postponed return of the Colombian airline to Cuba was expected to be, according to specialists, competition for other companies offering the route to South America, such as Copa Airlines and Latam.
Avianca’s flights to Cuba began in 2012, twice a week. However, by January 2020, the airline announced the suspension of operations due to potential U.S. sanctions.
“Avianca Holdings informs that, while it resolves a pending issue with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), related to commercial operations to Cuba, the company will suspend the sale of tickets to and from Cuba starting October 31, 2019,” the company stated in a communiqué.
On October 23, 2019, Avianca announced that, as part of the financial structure for obtaining a loan, its majority shareholder, Synergy Aerospace Corp., established a limited liability company named BRW in the state of Delaware (USA), to which it unilaterally transferred all its shares of the conglomerate. With this operation, “Avianca came to be considered a company subject to U.S. regulations regarding the economic embargo that the country maintains against Cuba,” the company added at the time.
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