Aeropostal acquires Sol Air

[latinaviation]

According to AvNews Latin America & Caribbean and a Sol Air insider, this acquisition has already gone through with much of the Miami staff laid off. Aeropostal will takeover the administrative and finance functions, awaiting greater cooperation in fleet and route commonality. I understand that Ricardo Martinez, Sol Air's president, is in a figure head position to appease the Honduras government during the acquisition.

Nelson Ramiz, president of Aeropostal, has for sometime wanted a Central American airline. What do Sol Air and Aeropostal have in common? They both wet-lease aircraft from Falcon Air Express. Apparently Sol Air was in deep financial turmoil prior to the acquisition and Emilio Dirube, head of Falcon, knew this. He arranged a meeting with Ramiz and Martinez to go over Sol Air's numbers and Ramiz bought in.

The article below is in Spanish only.

http://www.elheraldo.hn/detalle.php?nid=9809&sec=9&fecha=2004-03-11
AerolÃ_nea venezolana interesada en Sol Air
El 45% de las acciones de la aerolÃ_nea hondureña Sol Air podrÃ_an ser vendidas a la compañÃ_a “Aeropostale Alas de Venezuelaâ€? en los próximos dÃ_as, según lo ha manifestado ayer Ricardo MartÃ_nez, presidente de la primera.

El ejecutivo ha señalado que existe un enorme interés por parte de los representantes de la lÃ_nea aérea venezolana de adquirir ese porcentaje de las acciones, por lo que han iniciado un proceso de negociación y que de acuerdo a las leyes nacionales es permitida.

Sol Air efectúo recientemente una alianza con Aeropostal para recibir colaboración en el área administrativa.

MartÃ_nez ha explicado que, a través de la alianza comercial que formalizaron con la empresa aérea de Venezuela, reciben cooperación en la administración por la enorme experiencia que poseen en cuanto a planeamiento y mercadeo de operaciones.

“No hemos cedido la administración, hasta la fecha la junta directiva y la asamblea de accionistas de Sol Air es la misma, asÃ_ como los cuadros de mandos intermediosâ€?, ha señalado.

Sol Air mantendrá su identidad, pese a que se concrete la venta de acciones que se negocia. “Se mantendrá como una lÃ_nea aérea hondureña, ya que la mayorÃ_a del capital continuarÃ_a siendo nacionalâ€?, ha dicho.

Asimismo, ha apuntado que para reforzar su presencia en el istmo se pretende alquilar aviones a Aeropostal para ampliar el mapa de rutas en Centro América, ya que al igual que Honduras, Venezuela se encuentra en categorÃ_a dos en servicios de aeronavegación, por lo tanto no pueden certificar aviones, por lo que utilizan las aeronaves de Falcon Air Express para volar a Miami.

MartÃ_nez ha explicado que la Ley de Aeronáutica de cualquier paÃ_s exige que las lÃ_neas aéreas deben estar en posesión y control de nacionales, ya que en caso de un conflicto las aeronaves juegan un papel muy importante en el traslado de tropas.

Ha explicado que la alianza que se realizó con Aeropostal Alas es únicamente de orden comercial, ellos proporcionarán herramientas para ampliar los sistemas de reservación y ventas, ya que la empresa venezolana no ha involucrado capital, por lo tanto no se puede hablar de la venta de acciones aún.

LOS VUELOS DE SOL AIR

Tegucigalpa- San Pedro Sula-Miami
Managua-Miami
Tegucigalpa-Roatán (viernes y sábado)

[luisde8cd]

Interesting news.... seems like Aeropostal is growing.

Aeropostal recently adquired a MD83 from aeromexico and sometimes uses a falcon air B733 from Miami to Caracas. The scheduled flights from Miami are flown on 727s. The MD83 is now registered YV-01C and is replacing a B727 (venezuelan registration) on the Caracas-Bogota-Quito route.

I also read some rumours on airliners.net forums that there's another MD83 from aeromexico and a B757 also from aeromexico on their way to Caracas. Would be very cool to see a B757 in Aeropostal colors.

[latinaviation]

Aeropostal is growing, and they are joining the pan-Latin trend of expanding beyond one country, similar to Lan and Grupo Taca. In addition to Sol Air, whose 737s have already been painted in Aeropostal colors, Aeropostal has a stake in AeroGal (Ecuador) and AeroRepublica (Colombia). Suffice to say, Nelson Ramiz is managing the Venezuelan crisis quite well.

[luisde8cd]

Aeropostal used to operate A320s and A310s leased from Transmeridian between 1997 and 1998-99 (Not sure). They even flew Caracas-Orlando Sanford nonstop. But since Chavez came into office, our economy has fallen into a deep recession. :\

Right now the only airlines that are able to compete internationally are Aeropostal and Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is flying to Madrid and Santiago de Compostela in Spain with former-avensa DC10s and is using a B727 on the Caracas-Guayaquil-Lima run. They are applying for permission to fly from Maracaibo and Caracas to Miami or Ft Lauderdale. :ok:

Avior is a regional airline that's growing pretty fast. They have developed a large route network with their B1900s and EMB-120s and have started flying to Grenada and Trinidad from Margarita Island. They also recently started Caracas-Ft de France and Valencia-Bogota, both with EMB-120s. Avior also adquired one or two B732s that are used for charter flights to Punta Cana from Caracas and for the Caracas-Margarita Island shuttle.

International growing isn't going to be better if the goverment continues to ban currency exchange, that means that us venezuelan cannot exchange our Bolivares for US Dollars or any other currency. We cannot travel abroad. That's a huge obstacule for international travel from Venezuela.:ugh:

[Panama Jack]

Is Sol Air even a "real" airline?

Seems to me that it is more like a virtual airline. A few years ago we had the same in Nicaragua under the name "SANSA." None of their own airplanes, nor operations manual, nor crews . . . . nothing!!! Everything was wetleased (chartered), all with great fanfair about it being the new "flag carrier" with Nicaraguan-style service and hospitality (yikes!!! :uhoh: ), the Archbishop sprinkling holy water over the radome and all that other :yuk: . Both Nicaragua and Honduras have categorization problems, so, the solution has been to simply have some investors contract a US company and have the airplanes painted up in the style they wish (and of course launch a pretty website). So what exactly is Aeropostal "buying?"

[luisde8cd]

I really can't see any real benefits from this... I think Aeropostal's CEO should rather use their small income to invest on his own airline first. Aeropostal needs to begin a fleet renovation soon. The fleet is 95% DC9s that are very old and noisy.

[latinaviation]

Panama Jack - Yeah, Sol Air was/is a pseudo Honduran airline, but only because of the Cat II problems. Their management was Honduran, but they used two Falcon Air 737-300s and a 727-200 with Falcon cockpit and cabin crews, though many of them hail from Central America originally.

Sol Air's problems began with their sensational pricing. At first, smartly, they stayed under the radar and had a reasonable fare structure. But they launched a war, which against AA and TA is always a death threat. AA wasn't so impacted because they have the flow traffic via MIA, but TA acted very aggressively. Sol Air filed all sorts of claims in the Honduran courts, but they were eventually thrown out.

Emilio Dirube, who owns Falcon Air, wet-leases planes for Aeropostal, too. Nelson Ramiz, via his US-based Aeron Investments, had wanted to invest in a Central American airline. Dirube knew Sol Air's precious financial situation and made the arrangement between the two. Ramiz slashed a lot of Sol Air's management and started integrating their systems on the back-end. This was badly needed, from what I understand.

For the future, who knows. Their Central American - US traffic will be limited. He'd be better served using Sol Air to flow pax to Venezuela for onward connections, bypassing tough US visa laws.

As for Dirube's investments in other airlines. If he is going to stay commited to the cause, he needs to diversify. The writing is clear: consolidation is and will happen. Lan and Taca are perfect examples. Continental and Copa are another, and their renewed interest in Avianca may lead to further consolidation. An Aeropostal-Sol Air-Aerogal-Aerorepublica link makes sense, in view of other airlines consolidating. Further south, Pluna is on the market with AR deeply interested, and AR is moving into Chile as well.

Consolidation, in some form, is inevitable.

[luisde8cd]

Yes indeed. integration is badly needed in Latin America. Europe could do it despite having different languages, cultures, religions. Europe right now is like one big country, that's the integration model Latin America must follow. We have the same language (except brazil), very similiar cultures. In theory sounds easy but in real life there have been many political differences that have halted the process.

Goverments should help airlines by starting an open skies policy so flying internationally between latin american countries will be easier and cheaper for us passengers.

Back to Aeropostal/Sol Air. I dont really see any traffic between Honduras and Venezuela to justify a route, and for connections to other S. American countries, it's easier for people from honduras to fly copa to PTY and connect there. Since Aeropostal only offers S. American flights I dont really see any possible alliance in that way. Aeropostal codeshares with Air Europa on the CCS-MAD route, and I think AA competition connecting in Miami to Europe is just too big.

[Panama Jack]

Well Latin Aviation, that's very interesting insight. I agree with you that we're going to see a lot more consolidation in the future . . . certainly will be interesting.

So, do you think I am safe buying a ticket on Sol Air for a trip in two weeks? :8

[latinaviation]

I think you'll be fine. Sol Air isn't drastically changing route networks, just structure and service.

[antiicing]

Si es verdad que son muchos planes de expansion y todo lo demas, pero he oido que los sueldos son por el piso, no es buena paga y como la mayoria de los pilotos en aeropostal que vuelan interncaional o en el resto de venzuela, siempre se redondean con los viaticos y no puede ser............ siempre lo mismo. nunca hay nada justo, las empresas expandiendose y ganando mas y todo basado en Dolares, y los salarios en bolivares..........asi no se puede, claro , hay trabajo y todo , pero siempre el mismo cuento........
ojala y esto cambie algun dia en venezuela
saludos
QAP
:mad:

[luisde8cd]

antiicing, where are you from? Venezuela?

You are right... pilot wages in Venezuela are among the lowest in the world:(. I heard that Santa Barbara pilots that fly to Madrid have to pay for their food and transportation while they are staying in Spain. The airline only pays the hotel. They earn in Venezuelan Bolivares and have to spend Euros in Spain, very very bad for them....

I also heard that Avior is the only airline that somewhat cares for their pilots, but it ain't the great thing either.

[Panama Jack]

Recently had a chat with another pilot in Nicaragua, and it was a real eye opener on what wages are here. I think most Captain wages top out at about $1100 USD per month, that is with a month of plenty of flying. FO's on the other hand start out at about $200 to $300 per month :uhoh: Grupo TACA pilots do better-- I am talking about the "others"

Show me the money indeed! Just imagine if we were to see the advent of "Low Cost Carriers!" :ugh:

[antiicing]

youre right luis, im from venezuela, & I can tell you that a Dc10 capt in Barbara is a little more than $1,000, they round up theyre salaries with the perdiems, wich they do receive to madrid, they dont have to pay for anything while they out on spain evrything taking care of, and the perdiems are good, what is not good is the salary, an ATR captain........make a wild guess........only $781.....thats right...........781..........thats nothing, we venezuelan shuold be ashemed of our selves, we are the one's who let this happen, the thing we need is a Union, but a rely good one, one that cares, one that protects the piltos in every company out there in venezuela....................thats it
bye people
gotta fly:ok:

[latinaviation]

I read in La Prensa of Nicaragua that Sol Air abruptly halted flights to Managua, Nicaragua, leaving passengers stranded. Now the Nica gov't wants to suspend Sol Air's operating authority and go after them for stranding these people. They were operating a 727-200 of Falcon Air's over this weekend in Honduras. I saw them in TGU on Fri and Mon operating MIA-TGU-SAP-MIA with decent loads.

[luisde8cd]

Doesn't surprise me at all that Sol Air stopped flying to Managua. That route didn't seem to be profitable at all. If you read Panama Jack's post about the Sol Air emergency landing in Managua last week, the article says that there were 19 passengers on board... how can a route flown by a B727 that holds 190 people, be profitable with only 19 pax?? I think it's a good move by the new Aeropostal management. They seek profits, no more losses.

[Panama Jack]

Hmmm, that sucks. :ugh:

Oh well folks, use it or lose it.

[Panama Jack]

Here is the link to the La Prensa (Nicaragua) article (http://www.laprensa.com.ni/nacionales/nacionales-20040507-11.html)

[Panama Jack]

DGAC Nicaragua suspended Sol Air's license to serve Nicaragua, after determining that the airline's reasons for suddenly suspending service to Managua are not valid and constitute a violation of article 69 of the Civil Aviation Code.

The airline was fined a total of C$25,000 cordobas (approximately $1600 USD) by la Dirección de Aeronáutica Civil.

According to Sol Air, the suspension of service was due to problems complying with the schedule because they only have one airplane, and negative publicity and lack of credibility at travel agents. As of the 1st of May, Sol Air announced the temporary suspension of the Managua-Miami route.

According to Alejandro Wong Valle, technical advisor to DGAC, these arguements do not justify abandoning the route without first advising the competent authorities. "These arguments are not valid nor reasonable. They had a market study before inaugurating flights to Nicaragua. We are now asking for them to provide the number of passengers which had reservations with them during the next month to resolve the situation."

Wong Valle emphasized that Sol Air would have to start from the beginning in complying with the requirements to obtain a new license to serve Managua.

Sol Air, in the meantime, insists that it will not abandon the Nicaraguan market and will comply with all the DGAC requirements and will renew the process of complying with requirements to retain the license.

According to Reynaly Ram'rez, manager of Sol Air, the airline is preparing the monetary compensation to those pasengers who had previously purchased tickets so that their travel plans would not be affected.

http://www-ni.laprensa.com.ni/cgi-bin/print.pl?id=nacionales-20040508-03