The International Aviation Transport Association (IATA) have issued a statement, addressed to travel agents, suspending the sale of Avianca Brasil tickets.
IATA suspended Avianca Brasil from the BSP – Bank Settlement Plan. The BSP is a system developed to facilitate and simplify sales procedures and operates in 180 countries for a total of 370 airlines.
“BSP travel agents must automatically suspend all ticketing activities on behalf of Avianca Brasil, including the use of any automated refund processing systems or other transactions on behalf of the airline”
“All pending settlements, including pending sales and refunds or any future transactions, must be settled directly with Avianca Brasil”
In practice, the IATA decision prevents the airline from being used on flights that complement international operations. For example, if a European airline sells a Madrid-Salvador flight, but only has direct flights to São Paulo, the Brazilian airline will not be able to operate the São Paulo-Salvador flight. This measure makes the sale of air packages infeasible for flights that join Avianca with those of other companies. The routes operated by Avianca Brazil will no longer be displayed to passengers in search of options when travelling.
This is another defeat for a company that has been in judicial recovery since December and until now has not been able to define its future.
Avianca Brasil fleet was composed of 36 aircraft but currently only have 6 aircraft flying! This led to the cancellation of thousands of flights and limiting the company’s operations to only 4 airports: São Paulo Congonhas, BrasÃlia, Salvador, and Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont. The company announced that it has suspended more than 800 flights from Monday through Thursday (16).
All Images by Juan Cosmo