Columbia's national airline, Avianca, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a court in New York, the United States of America, after revealing that the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic had cut over 80% of its income. Under Chapter 11, Avianca's obligation to creditors are temporarily postponed to give the company time to reorganize debts or sell parts of the company and/or its assets. Should the company fail to come out of bankruptcy, Avianca will become the first major airline to go under in the Covid-19 pandemic. The company had ceased passenger operations since March 2020 due to the pandemic, and currently has $4.9 billion United States dollars of debt.

Since Colombian President Ivan Dugue closed off the nation's airspace to passenger flights, over 140 of Avianca's aircraft have been grounded and some 20,000 employees have been put on unpaid leave.  

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1. Announcement of Chapter 11 Filing: https://aviancawillkeeponflying.com/

2. Avianca's Twitter announcement: https://twitter.com/AviancaNAM/status/1259636762453970944