Avianca Holdings


Avianca Holdings is a Latin American airline holding company formed in February 2010 by the merger of two airlines, Avianca from Colombia and TACA Airlines from El Salvador.
On May 10, 2020, Avianca filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States after failing to pay bond holders, becoming one of the major airlines to file for bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Operations

The company is the second largest airline holding in Latin America by revenue and fleet size after LATAM Airlines Group based in Santiago, Chile. With a fleet of 173 aircraft and more than 19,000 employees, Avianca serves over 100 destinations in America and Europe, which connect to over 750 destinations worldwide through codeshare agreements with partner airlines. Avianca carried 24,6 million passengers in 2013.

Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that the former company's Chairman Germán Efromovich 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, aircraft company owned by Macri Group, for an amount of US$ 10 million. Allowing Avianca to make headway in the low-cost carrier business in Argentina. The Argentine government accepted this offshores as a financial guarantee to assign air routes to Avianca which is now being investigated by the Argentine federal justice system.

Shareholding

Shareholding composition of Avianca Holding S.A. as of April 8, 2019: