March 25, 2003 - Arlington, Virginia - ARC has been advised that Avianca Airlines, AV/134, the airline of Colombia, has filed a voluntary reorganization proceeding under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This action was filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), in New York City on March 21, 2003. The case number is 03-11678-alg, Judge Allan L. Gropper presiding.

Avianca Airlines has announced that it expects to continue operation of its flights and customer programs without interruption and its ticket refund and exchange policies remain in effect. Uninterrupted processing of travel agent transactions is critical to this mission. For this reason, Avianca Airlines has agreed with ARC to continue processing Avianca Airlines validated transactions including sales, refunds, and exchanges without interruption. Travel agents are asked to continue checking ARC's web site for future updates.

Travel agents are asked to contact ARC's Customer Service Center at (703) 816-8003 or csc@arccorp.com with any processing-related questions.  ARC will also be posting related updates in the Announcement section of ARC's Web site at www.arccorp.com.