Avianca Brasil is expected to lay off about a thousand employees, a third of its workforce, in June 2019. The plan for staff reduction was presented by the airline as part of its judicial rescue plan.
The company started the year with 5,563 employees, according to Brazilian news agency G1. Now, only 2,687 people remain, and another thousand could be gone before the end of next month.
On May 24, 2019, the ANAC, the Brazilian authority for civil aviation, had suspended all Avianca Brasil operations “as a precautionary measure”. About 30 flights per day were being operated at the time.
On May 6, 2019, a Brazilian appeals court had canceled the bankruptcy auction set for the next day, in which Avianca Brasil hoped to raise at least $140 million by selling its slots in some of the most active Brazilian airports, namely Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont, Sao Paulo Congonhas, and Sao Paulo Guarulhos. Now that those are not used, Avianca’s (AVHOQ) rights on them could be revoked by the local authorities.
The country’s fourth-largest airline has been under bankruptcy protection since December 2018, after three leasing companies have demanded the Brazilian carrier for the return of a third of its fleet.
