Air-e Crisis, One of the First 'Time Bombs' to Be Defused by the Next Government
Experts warn that the next government will inherit not only a company in crisis but also the responsibility to guarantee service to millions of users, stabilize finances, and define a sustainable model for the region.
June 20, 2026
After 21 months of intervention, Air-e has not managed to recover its financial stability and has accumulated billions in debt with energy generators.
By: Claudia Sarmiento Rojas
For decades, the energy crisis in the Caribbean region has been a constant. Consolidating an energy company capable of providing quality service and competitive rates to more than 11 million inhabitants has been one of the greatest challenges faced by successive governments.
State interventions, operator changes, and broken promises are part of a story that seems to repeat itself over and over, with no fundamental solution in sight either in the short or medium term.
It is worth recalling that after the intervention of Electricaribe in 2016 and its subsequent liquidation, the market was divided between two operators: Afinia, which now serves Bolívar, Sucre, Córdoba, and Cesar, and Air-e, responsible for Atlántico, Magdalena, and La Guajira. However, only a few years later, the model failed again.
Respaldo “condicionado” de gremios del Caribe a sobretasa por crisis financiera de Air-e
Once again, users in the Colombian Caribbean had to relive the ghost of intervention. In September 2024, the Superintendence of Residential Public Services took possession of Air-e due to the company's financial, operational, and commercial deterioration.
The decision raised expectations among users, business leaders, and local authorities, who trusted that the national government could correct the structural problems accumulated over the years and steer the company toward recovery. However, far from improving, the situation worsened.
During the 21 months of intervention for liquidation purposes, Air-e has had five different intervenors, accumulated debt exceeding 2.7 trillion pesos — much of it with energy generators — and has not made the necessary investments to modernize the electrical infrastructure and improve the quality and continuity of service in Atlántico, Magdalena, and La Guajira.
Petro Announces Liquidation
President Gustavo Petro's announcement to liquidate Air-e set off alarms once again. Even more so when, in just a few hours, the next president of Colombia will be known and will have in their hands the electrical future not only of the Caribbean region but of the entire country.
Therefore, uncertainty reigns as the message was not accompanied by a clear roadmap on how the transition will be carried out, who will actually take over the operation of the service, or when the process will begin.
From various sectors, including the governors of the Caribbean region and the mayor of Barranquilla, doubts persist about how the accumulated millions in debt will be handled and what measures will be taken to prevent the Air-e crisis from becoming a time bomb that the next government will inherit.
Read also: Air-e refuerza personal, equipos y materiales para asegurar la normalidad del servicio este domingo
In this regard, Mayor Alejandro Char, who had already asked the national government to take over Air-e, strongly criticized the head of state for the lack of results from the intervention, which he called a "disaster."
"There have already been five interveners and the debt with the generating companies doubled and even tripled. That has been the worst thing that has happened," he said.
The truth is that days after President Petro's announcement, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Edwin Palma, assured that the liquidation of the company will not take place under this government.
That is, he leaves the new government the task of finding a solution to the energy crisis, not only of Air-e but also of Afinia. For experts, beyond the legal and political discussion, the real challenge will be to guarantee the continuity of energy service in the region.
Unions Speak Out
Faced with this scenario, the Inter-union Committee on Energy and Gas — made up of Andesco, Acolgen, Andeg, Asocodis, SER Colombia, Naturgas, and ACP — described the measure as "hasty and lacking technical support" and warned that before moving forward with a possible liquidation, it is necessary to structure a business solution that guarantees the continuity of service in the Caribbean region.
At the same time, it proposed a fundamental solution for the electrical system in the Caribbean region. The initiative contemplates the participation of the State and takes into account the high levels of poverty in the population and the particularities of the regional market, seeking a balance between efficient rates and viable companies to guarantee the provision of service.
Read also: “No se definirá ya en lo que resta del gobierno”: Minminas sobre liquidación de Air-e
On the other hand, bearing in mind that the effects of the El Niño phenomenon are already being felt, the president of the Colombian Association of Electric Energy Generators (Acolgen), Natalia Gutiérrez, called for the billions in debt of the intervened company with thermal plants to be paid in a timely manner so that they can buy gas, liquid fuels, and coal, thus guaranteeing their operation.
"Thermal plants must start operating before summer worsens to allow hydroelectric plants to conserve water and get to December with reservoirs at safe levels," she indicated.
For his part, Alejandro Castañeda, president of the National Association of Generating Companies (Andeg), described the Executive's announcement as "irresponsible and unwise."
He assured that the government has not found a suitable operator to replace Air-e and that state companies do not have the financial capacity to take over a company that currently loses between 150,000 and 200,000 million pesos per month.
In turn, the Colombian Energy Chamber warned that this situation puts at risk the continuity and quality of the electrical service, as well as the financial stability of the sector in the region.
Furthermore, it could weaken the national energy market and hinder the ability to respond to scenarios of severe droughts associated with the El Niño phenomenon.
The union also warned that communities and businesses could face higher costs, deterioration in service quality, and delays in electrification and regional development projects.
It also highlighted the risk of previous models: "It is dangerous to return to state business models that already failed in the past, such as Corelca and its electricity distributors."
The company is responsible for operations in the departments of Atlántico, Magdalena, and La Guajira.
A New Company?
Although it has not been made official that the state company Gecelca will take over the operation of Air-e, questions about its capacity were not long in coming.
The first to do so was Governor Eduardo Verano, who assured that the company currently does not have the necessary capacity to assume that function immediately.
He stressed that Gecelca is a generation company that also has its own tasks and does not have the infrastructure to "overnight start providing an energy distribution service, which is very specialized. It is true that it belongs to the same sector, but they are different functions."
Along the same lines, energy expert César Uparela stated that Gecelca is not in a position to take over the operation of Air-e because the state company lacks the experience and necessary structure to provide energy distribution and commercialization service to more than 1.3 million users.
For Uparela, this or the next government must conduct a selection process to find a public, private, or mixed company that has the technical and financial capacity to take over the operation.
"What is needed is to open a tender so that companies with sufficient experience and financial muscle to handle this operation can apply," he indicated.
No to Liquidation
Norman Alarcón, coordinator of the National League of Public Service Users of the Caribbean, insisted that the priority in the face of the Air-e crisis should not be the liquidation of the company but its financial stabilization.
For the user leader, this remains the most viable alternative to guarantee the continuity of service in the Caribbean region: "The first thing to do, and which should have been done since the government intervened in the company, is to stabilize Air-e, because it is going through serious difficulties, as the government itself and the company's union recognize."
To achieve this, he noted, significant capital injections are required through the Business Fund of the Superintendence of Public Services, a mechanism that has legal authorization to obtain loans from national and international banks and manage contributions from the national government.
Alarcón also proposed that once the company is stabilized, progress be made in creating a mixed Caribbean energy company.
The initiative contemplates integrating assets and capacities of existing public companies, including Urrá, Gecelca, Transelca, Air-e, and Afinia, with the aim of building a solid business structure for the region.
Finally, Alarcón stated that this is a "great opportunity for the Colombian state to settle the historical debt it has with the Caribbean and build a long-term electric and energy public policy that does not depend on the ups and downs of each government."
The Long Road Involved in the Air-e Liquidation Process
Lawyer Gustavo Cuberos of the firm Holland & Knight explained that, from a legal standpoint, the Air-e liquidation process would have several stages already provided for in the current regulations for companies intervened by the Superintendence of Public Services. He noted that the first phase corresponds to taking possession to administer the company, a stage that has already been exhausted, and since the expected result of financial and operational recovery during the intervention was not achieved, the process would move toward liquidation.
To do this, a resolution must be issued informing the public and all creditors of the company that the company will be liquidated. From that moment on, those with economic claims must present their credits and supporting evidence to the liquidator.
However, due to Air-e's size and the economic, political, and social impact it has on the Caribbean region, this process would be very complex, so before making a final decision, technical, legal, and financial analyses must be carried out. For Cuberos, the most important condition is not legal but practical: guaranteeing who will take over the provision of service once Air-e leaves the market.
"Without a clear solution for the continuity of electrical service, it is impossible to carry out an effective liquidation," he warned.
Finally, he recalled that the law establishes a maximum period of four years to complete a liquidation process.
