The Brazilian airline Avianca Brazil, which since August of last year retaken the commercial name OceanAir, again asked the Justice to be declared bankrupt, after resorting to the bankruptcy law at the end of 2018 and not obtaining judicial recovery, judicial sources reported.
Last Friday, the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, through one of its specialized Bankruptcy and Judicial Recovery Courts, received the request presented by the law firm Thomaz Bastos & Waisberg Kurzweil Advogados, as confirmed by that instance of the regional judiciary.
In November last year, the Alvarez & Marsal law office, the company’s court administrator, had also filed the same request for the inoperative airline to be declared bankrupt.
OceanAir, which used the name Avianca Brasil between 2010 and 2019, is an independent company from the Colombian Avianca Holdings SA, and filed for bankruptcy in 2018 but was unable to overcome the phase of the process known as judicial recovery, in which companies look for alternatives to avoid filing for bankruptcy.
The company, which in May 2019 had its flights suspended by the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC, regulator), accumulates debts of 2.7 billion reais (about US $ 540 million) and was forced to deliver the 48 aircraft I had.
Frustrated auction
A year ago, even with the name of Avianca Brasil and in its bid for judicial recovery protected by bankruptcy law, the airline auctioned off the so-called “slots”, as permits to take off and land at the country’s busiest airports are known. , like those of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
However, the then fourth largest airline in Brazil could not receive the US $ 147 million from the sale to Latam Brasil and Gol because the auction did not obtain final approval by ANAC and those resources, which would be used to pay creditors, never they came to the company.
ANAC chose to redistribute those “slots” among the other local airlines: Gol, Latam Brasil, Azul, Passaredo and MAP.
In its recent bankruptcy petition, OceanAir regretted that the current preservation of “slots” to help the battered airline sector, due to the coronavirus pandemic that reduced operations by 90%, was not taken into account for the then Avianca Brasil , who was even prevented from selling them.
He Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), monopoly fighting body, warned in April 2019, before the auction, about the risks for fair competition in the air transport market with the sale of the assets of Avianca Brazil.
According to CADE in a study, Brazilian aviation has a “high concentration of the sector” and “already has enough characteristics to raise concerns.”
With the new order, the airline requested a period of sixty days to present a list of the assets that will be auctioned by the Justice to correct part of the debts with the creditors.
Despite the fact that the company is owned by the Germán and José Efromovich brothers, also shareholders of Avianca Holdings, the parent company issued a statement on Monday in which it clarified that OceanAir “is a totally independent company” and that is why its current situation “is related to the group and its subsidiaries. “
Last May, Avianca Holdings announced that it asked to file under the United States bankruptcy protection law to initiate a reorganization process due to “the speed and dramatic escalation of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis” and made official the closure of Avianca Peru operations.
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