Aeroregional entered Galapagos with part of the routes that were from Tame and competes with Latam and Avianca

With 34 passengers on board, this airline started with its first flight on the Triangular Route Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra.

Without Tame in the domestic market due to its liquidation, Aeroregional since yesterday began to replace the space that the public airline left in the Galapagos Islands and entered to compete with Latam Ecuador and Avianca in that destination.

With 34 passengers aboard one of the planes that has its newliveryTricolor, this airline started with its first flight on the Triangular Route Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra.

Aeroregional was one of the three airlines to which the National Aviation Council assigned this year the 16 frequencies that Tame had in the archipelago. Other frequencies were distributed to Equinoxair and Galapagos Air Ways. This assignment process had repairs of Avianca Ecuador.

The Regional Air Service Company, the corporate name of Aeroregional, was granted five weekly frequencies on the Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra route and two Quito-Guayaquil-San Cristóbal frequencies.

The firm intended to increase the frequencies to Baltra, the island through which the greatest amount of passengers and the destination most desired by airlines by traffic enters.

It will initially operate two weekly frequencies on Mondays and Tuesday using Boeing 737-500 aircraft with capacity for 129 passengers and Boeing 737-400 for 145 passengers, according to Quiport, concessionaire of the capital airport, from which yesterday the opening flight that was fired with a water arc.

The Civil Aviation Directorate indicated that yesterday's flight was part of the fulfillment of the certification process to operate with the itinerary.

Manuel Rodríguez, president of Aeroregional, said that the company's strategy is oriented to the Ecuadorian passenger. "In the case of Galapagos we seek to capture passengers who must travel through work issues to the islands, but also to the settlers, without neglecting the national tourist who can find a new alternative to travel," he said.

The Executive said that in the coming months they will continue to announce the opening of new domestic routes.

Last June, this company received its third plane, a B737-400 plane that was received in the Ecuadorian capital.

Ramón Miró, president and general director of Quiport, indicated that the incorporation of this new route contributes to the reactivation of tourism and air transport. "We are sending the message to the world that things are doing well in Ecuador."

Aeroregional to Galapagos entry is the weekly expansion of the availability of chairs in that market, which is still struggling to recover passenger traffic.

"We have great expectations if we consider that the space left by Tame, which represented 25% of the market, has not been covered," said Jorge Rosillo, general manager of Galapagos Ecological Airport.

The Executive expects Aeroregional to increase its flights until you have seven a week.

"We see a tourist and economic reactivation that although it is not immediate, is advancing in great steps," Rosillo said.

Data from the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism report that during 2020 the entrance of tourists fell 73 %, from 271,238 to 75,519.

The islands arrived 38,491 tourists in the first half of 2021, 30.56 % less than in the same period of 2020 when 55,432 arrived. Most of those who have traveled this year have been Ecuadorians.

For Andrés Ordóñez, director of the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism, the economic reactivation in the islands is still gradual. "Although the entrance number of tourists, especially foreigners, increases monthly we are still far from the 2019 indicators," he said.

International promotion has managed to position a sure destination that acts as a magnet to increase international tourism, but indicated that reforms are still required that support entrepreneurs in their recovery, such as an exemption of fees, incentives for investment and sustainability of business.