Avianca Group International Limited (formerly Avianca Holdings S.A. and AviancaTaca Holding Inc.) is a pan-regional

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n multinational airline

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

with its registered office in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, England, and its global headquarters in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Colombia. It was formed in February 2010 after a merger agreement between

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered under ...

and

TACA Airlines Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano, (''Air Transports of the American Continent'', known and branded formerly as TACA International), operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings based in El Salvador. As ...

, the

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

s of

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

respectively, when Avianca and TACA became wholly owned subsidiaries of Avianca Holdings. TACA Airlines shareholders were given 29% and Avianca Airlines shareholders were given 71% of the shares in the new company. The company was previously listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

and the

Colombia Stock Exchange The Colombia Securities Exchange ( es, Bolsa de Valores de Colombia, bvc) is a stock exchange which was created as a result of merging three independent stock exchanges: Bogotá (Bolsa de Bogotá, 1928), Medellín (Bolsa de Medellín, 1961) and O ...

as Avianca Holdings. Since its inception, the Avianca Group has expanded its portfolio of operations and brands with the acquisition of the Mexican

AeroUnion Aerotransporte de Carga Unión S.A. de C.V., commonly known as AeroUnion, is a scheduled cargo airline headquartered in Hangar Zone G at Mexico City International Airport in Mexico City, Mexico. It operates cargo services within and between Mex ...

in 2014. The Group also owns the

Avianca Express Avianca Express (legally ''Regional Express Américas S.A.S.'') is a Colombian regional airline founded in December 2018. It is owned by Avianca Group and is being phased in, as of spring 2019, as part of the adjustment plan for its operating mod ...

brand and LifeMiles, the Avianca rewards program.

Operations

The company is the second largest airline holding in

by revenue and fleet size after

LATAM Airlines Group LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is an airline holding company headquartered in Santiago, Chile. It is considered the largest airline company in Latin America with subsidiaries in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. The company filed for Ch ...

based in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. With a fleet of 173 aircraft and more than 19,000 employees, Avianca serves over 100 destinations in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, which connect to over 750 destinations worldwide through

codeshare agreement A codeshare agreement, also known simply as codeshare, is a business arrangement, common in the aviation industry, in which two or more airlines publish and market the same flight under their own airline designator and flight number (the "airli ...

s with partner airlines. Avianca carried 24.6 million passengers in 2013.

Paradise Papers

On November 5, 2017, the

Paradise Papers The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...

, a set of confidential

electronic document An electronic document is any electronic media content (other than computer programs or system files) that is intended to be used in either an electronic form or as printed output. Originally, any computer data were considered as something inter ...

s relating to

offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...

, revealed that the company's former Chairman

Germán Efromovich Germán Efromovich (born 1950 in La Paz) is a Bolivian-born entrepreneur with multiple citizenship: Brazilian, Colombian, and Polish. He was born into a family of Polish Jews.

was linked to an offshore conglomerate used for the aerocommercial holding business with ramifications in Bermuda, Panama and Cyprus. Efromovich used a Panamanian offshore that hid more than 20 firms located in tax havens. The conglomerate was used by Avianca Holdings in the purchase of MacAir Jet, now

Avianca Argentina Avianca Argentina, legally incorporated as Avian Líneas Aéreas S.A., was an Argentine airline headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with its operational hub at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in the city. The airline operated commercially under t ...

, aircraft company owned by Macri Group, for an amount of US$10 million. Allowing Avianca to make headway in the

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

business in Argentina. The Argentine government accepted these offshores as a financial

guarantee Guarantee is a legal term more comprehensive and of higher import than either warranty or "security". It most commonly designates a private transaction by means of which one person, to obtain some trust, confidence or credit for another, engages ...

to assign air routes to Avianca which is now being investigated by the Argentine federal justice system.

Bankruptcy

On May 10, 2020, Avianca filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

after failing to pay bond holders, becoming one of the major airlines to file for bankruptcy due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

crisis. In November 2020, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved its $2 billion refinancing plan.

Shareholding

Shareholding composition of Avianca Holding S.A. as of March 31, 2021: * BRW Aviation LLC – 51.53 % * Kingsland Holdings Limited – 14.46 % *

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

– less than 1% * Avianca Holdings S.A – 15.64 % * Several

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

s plus numerous individual investors, mostly

n and others – 17.37%

Subsidiaries

Current

Avianca Cargo Avianca Cargo (formerly ''Tampa Cargo - Transportes Aereos Mercantiles PanAmericanos S.A.'') is a cargo airline based at José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia. It is an all-cargo airline transporting flowers from Lati ...

***

Helicol Helicol S.A. (Spanish acronym: ''Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia'') is a helicopter operator based at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia. It is a subsidiary airline of Avianca. History Helicol was founded on July 3, 1955, ...

***PAS - Petroleum Aviation and Services *

Avianca Costa Rica Avianca Costa Rica S.A., formerly known as LACSA (''Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.''), minority owned by the Synergy Group, is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled servic ...

Avianca Ecuador Avianca Ecuador S.A. (formerly known as AeroGal) is an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It operates passenger and cargo flights within Ecuador, between the mainland and the Galápagos Islands, and between Ecuador and Colombia (on behalf of Avianc ...

Avianca El Salvador Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano, (''Air Transports of the American Continent'', known and branded formerly as TACA International), operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings based in El Salvador. As ...

Avianca Guatemala Aviateca S.A. branded Avianca Guatemala is a regional airline headquartered in Guatemala City. Aviateca was under government ownership and remained so until 1989 when it joined the Grupo TACA alliance of Central America and was privatized. It wa ...

Avianca Honduras Isleña de Inversiones S.A. de C.V. branded Avianca Honduras was an regional airline based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It offered mostly scheduled and chartered passenger flights out of its hub at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airpo ...

(dormant)

Former

Aeroperlas Aeroperlas (acronym for Aerolíneas Islas de Las Perlas) was a regional airline based in Panama City, Panama. It was the third largest airline in the country, surpassed only by Air Panama and Copa Airlines. From its hub at Marcos A. Gelabert and ...

* Avianca Perú * La Costeña (active independently) *

Sansa Airlines SANSA (''Servicios Aéreos Nacionales S.A.'') is an regional airline based in San José, Costa Rica. It operates scheduled passenger services as part of the former TACA Regional system, and was a subsidiary of Avianca Holdings. Its main hub is Jua ...

(active independently) *

VIP Ecuador Vuelos Internos Privados S.A. (''VIP'' for short) was an Ecuadorian regional airline based at the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport and headquartered in Quito, Ecuador. It operated domestic and regional services. The airline was a subsidiar ...

References

{{Companies of the COLCAP Index Airline holding companies Avianca Holding companies of Colombia Companies based in Bogotá Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Holding companies established in 2010 Airlines established in 2010 Colombian brands Companies listed on the Colombia Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Colombian companies established in 2010