Airlines from Colombia fell abroad by 10.7% in March Business

Since reactivation in September, International air traffic was showing an upward trend in Colombia.

(Colombia granted permission to construct 40 new airways.)

Evidence of this, as reported by Procolombia, Is that 2020 ended with a 47% recovery in overseas calling, and this was also 7 percentage points higher than expected (pps)..

However, the restrictions maintained with some countries, and thus the imposition of Coronavirus tests, resulted in a quarterly slowdown in demand.

(The country is uniting its air network with the United States.)

According to the Civil Air Navigation, While January started with 68 lanes abroad, in February the number fell to 65 lanes, 4.4% lower. For its part, March, at -10.7%, was the month that saw the most decline, as it completed only 58 international calls.

“It is important to bear in mind that the impact of air transport is becoming evident around the world and our country has not been spared from the epidemic.”, Aerocivil indicated.

According to the latest report from IATA, corresponding to January, the demand for international flights decreased by 85.6% in the world.

Avianca is one of the airlines that has modified its operation. From Bogotá, contacts with US destinations were suspended in Washington, Los Angeles, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale.

To Europe, The stops were the roads from Bogota to London and Barcelona, ​​and those from Medellin and Cali to Madrid. While in the rest of America, those in the nation’s capital are temporarily suspended in San Juan (Puerto Rico), Curaçao, Asunción and the cities of La Paz and Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.

“It is imperative that it be known that these pauses are temporary and that they respond, in most cases, to strict restrictions in the various markets.”Silvia Mosquera, Avianca’s Vice President Commercial, confirmed.

Peru is an affected destination, thus routes such as Cartagena-Lima operated by Latam from Rafael Nunez Airport have been stopped.

In that country, Felix Antelo says, The head of Viva Air, the problem is that they “have started asking for a six-day quarantine to enter and whoever travels there because they need it.”

This airline, although it maintains routes from Bogota and Medellin to Lima, has reduced the number of frequencies. In the first case, go from five to three, and in the second case, from three to two.

Aerocivil data in this regard, It showed that when comparing January to February, the international frequency variation in the country was -12.1%, going from 1,109 in the first month to 974 in the second month.

“Our flights from Bogota to Toronto, Montreal and Cartagena-Toronto have been suspended due to Canadian immigration regulations. We hope to resume in May,” said Juan Manuel Calvo, Air Canada Sales Director for Colombia, Central America and Cuba.

With this country, Operation Air Transat from Cartagena to Toronto has also been suspended.

And as the aviation authority has stated, there are also difficulties with the UK and Brazil, which is why flights such as Latam and Avianca have been suspended there.

In increments

For Edwin Rincon, American Airlines Sales Director for Colombia and Ecuador, “The country has shown a favorable outlook and is one of the destinations most operated by the company in South America.”

In this company there are 14 flights to 6 Colombian cities and by May it is expected to open other direct links from Bogota, Medellin and Cali to JFK Airport in New York.

In the case of the Viva Air, new routes were recently announced from Medellin to Mexico City, Cancun and Orlando starting in June, as well as from Bogota to Mexico City.

While Wingo launched the Medellín-Cancun route.

But without a doubt The best performance was the national performance, because according to Aerocivil, although the operation in February decreased by 5.6%, from 108 to 102 flights, March started with the same number of flights in February. The negative difference was -2.4% (7,374 to 7,197) between the first two months of the year.

Maria Camilla Perez Godoy