Milbank Advises Avianca on Its Successful Chapter 11 Restructuring

Milbank LLP represents Avianca Airlines, the second-largest airline group in Latin America, in its chapter 11 reorganization. In May 2020, Avianca filed chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. As a result of Milbank’s efforts, Avianca successfully used the chapter 11 process to obtain critical short-term financing, to tailor its fleet of leased aircraft for a revamped business model, and ultimately to eliminate more than $1 billion of net debt. Avianca’s chapter 11 process was largely consensual, and on December 1, 2021, Avianca became the first Latin American airline during the 2020-21 restructuring wave to emerge from chapter 11. With its emergence, Avianca has delivered to its creditors a lean, well-capitalized business that is positioned to compete for passengers and cargo as the industry recovers.

The Milbank team, comprised of attorneys based in the firm’s New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, London and São Paulo offices, included Financial Restructuring partners Evan Fleck and Gregory Bray, special counsel Daniel Denny, and associates Benjamin Schak, Kyle Satterfield, Yuliya Zahoroda and Katie Cavins; Capital Markets partners Marcelo Mottesi and Tobias Stirnberg and associate Gonzalo Guitart; Corporate partners Francisco Nuñez and Mark Stamp, associates Soumya Sharma, Sarah Ullathorne, Gemma Cullen, Alex Wang, Ross Shepard, Christina Sonageri and Lewis Whiteoak and international attorney Manuel Dominguez; Tax partners Russell Jacobs and Andrew Walker and associate Cosmos Fung; Direct Lending and Specialty Finance partner Jay Grushkin, special counsel Jennifer Harris, and associates Andrew Park and Regina Gromen; Transportation & Space special counsel Alexandra Johnson and associate Steve Goff; Antitrust partner Fiona Schaeffer; and Litigation partners Andrew Leblanc, Aaron Renenger, Alan Stone, George Canellos and Adam Fee and associates Erin Dexter, Julie Wolf, Dani Lee, Steve Benz, Kristina Lauria, Hannah Blazek, Riah Kim, Meredith Brumfield and Executive Compensation Group and Corporate Governance partner Mike Shah.