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

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n multinational airline

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

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 Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. It is the second largest

air transport Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot ai ...

group in

after

LATAM Airlines Group LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is a Chile, Chilean multinational airline holding company headquartered in Santiago, Santiago, Chile. It is considered the largest airline company in Latin America with subsidiaries in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Par ...

. The Group dates back when it was formed in February 2010 after a merger agreement between

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias de Colombia S.A.'', "Airways of Colombia", and stylized as avianca since October 2023) is the largest airline in Colombia. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it ...

and TACA Airlines, 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 that government for international operations. Histo ...

s of

and

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of 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 by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

respectively, when Avianca and TACA became wholly owned subsidiaries of Avianca Holdings. TACA's shareholders were given 29% and Avianca's 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, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

and the

Colombia Stock Exchange The Colombia Securities Exchange (, 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 Occidente (Bolsa de Occidente, Ca ...

as Avianca Holdings. Since its inception, the Avianca Group has expanded its portfolio of operations and brands with the acquisition of the Mexican AeroUnion in 2014. The Group also owns the Avianca Express brand and the rewards program LifeMiles.

Operations

The company is the second largest airline holding in

by revenue and fleet size after

based in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

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

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, 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.

Subsidiaries

Current

** Helicol ** Avianca Express ** Avianca Services **Deprisa **LifeMiles * Avianca Cargo (formerly Tampa Cargo) ** AeroUnion * Avianca Costa Rica (formerly LACSA) * Avianca Ecuador (formerly AeroGal) * Avianca El Salvador (formerly TACA Airlines) * Avianca Guatemala (formerly Aviateca) * Avianca Honduras (formerly Isleña; dormant)

Former

* Aeroperlas * Avianca Perú * La Costeña * SANSA *Servicios Aeroportuarios Integrados

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. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

– 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 program, fund, or scheme which provides pension, retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the ...

s plus numerous individual investors, mostly

n and others – 17.37%

Corporate affairs

The key trends for the Avianca Group are (as of the financial year ending December 31):

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'' Süddeutsche Z ...

, a set of confidential

electronic document An electronic document is a document that can be sent in non-physical means, such as telex, email, and the internet. Originally, any computer data were considered as something internal—the final data output was always on paper. However, the ...

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 was linked to an offshore conglomerate used for the aero-commercial holding business with ramifications in

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. 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, an 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 (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...

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

guarantee A guarantee is a form of transaction in which one person, to obtain some trust, confidence or credit for another, agrees to be answerable for them. It may also designate a treaty through which claims, rights or possessions are secured. It is to ...

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, w ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

after failing to pay bondholders, 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

crisis. In November 2020, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved its $2 billion refinancing plan. In November 2021, Avianca Holdings announced they would move their legal address from

to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and that they would change their name to ''Avianca Group''. On December 1, 2021, Avianca emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in its history.

Fleet

, the fleet of the Avianca Group consists of the following aircraft:

Notes

References

{{Avianca 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