Colombia is the third country in the region with the best recovery in air transport

During the Pandemia Mexico and Ecuador they are the two countries with the best results.

After Mexico and Ecuador, Colombia is the third country that has best recovered its air transportation in the middle of the pandemic.

The country recovered about 47 % of its international air connectivity, seven more percentage points of the goal that the country had in 2020, advancing towards the normality of these services.

The result is the product of the reactivation of 48.6 % of the available chairs, as well as 46.6 % of the frequencies, according to calculations from the State Agolombia and OGA studies, this last provider of digital aeronautical information for the air transport sector.

Colombia closed the 2020 connected with 24 countries through 21 airlines, figures that exceed the goal drawn by Procolombia in 2020 to recover 40 % of the air capacity before the pandemic.

"Today we can say that we have recovered the confidence of international travelers thanks to an active work together with all the actors of the tourist chain, the private sector and the national government," said the president of Procolombia, Flavia Santoro.

With the closure of borders by the coronavirus pandemic and the global suspension of flights during 2020, Procolombia maintained constant contact with airlines to evaluate their needs and help them solve.

In addition, he developed a robust promotion plan, thanks to the fact that resources in this area doubled, focused on the markets of the Americas and Europe.

In 2020, seven new international air routes were opened: three prior to the pandemic and four after it.

The first were Jetsmart with the Santiago-Bogotá route, and two with new airlines, which were Ez Air with the Curacao-Bogotá and Laser route with Caracas-Bogotá.

In November, Fort Lauderdale routes were released with Bucaramanga and Barranquilla, operated by Spirit Airlines; And in December, Jetsmart was inaugurated with Antofagasta's connections with Cali and Bogotá, being the first time he connects with the Chilean city.

All airlines operating in Colombia offer travelers Bioseguro standards, with methods of cleaning and disinfection of their aircraft.

To this is added that the airports of Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Bucaramanga and Cúcuta, and the Avianca airlines, Wingo, Viva Air, Easy Fly, Latam and Satena, have the seal “Check in certificate, Covid-19 Bioseguro”, granted by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.

Projection for the rest of the year

The executive indicated that the goal of Procolombia in 2021 is to increase the weekly international frequencies that were in December 2020 and increase the weekly chairs by 12 % more compared to those recorded at the end of last year.

The good results of the recovery of air connectivity continue for this year, thanks to recent announcements of new connection lines with Mexico and the United States, which add up to 10 new routes that will start operation in the first half of the year.

In the case of Mexico, two Mexican airlines are in the application process to land Colombian clues.

This is how Volaris and Vivaaerobus are waiting for approval of the civil aeronautics of Colombia to define the dates of arrivals from Mexico City and Cancun to Bogotá and Medellín for the first, and from Mexico City to Bogotá for the second.

Likewise, Volaris is requesting permits from San José de Costa Rica to Bogotá and Medellín.

This is added that Viva Air announced new routes from Medellín to Mexico City, Cancun and Orlando from June of this year, as well as from Bogotá to Mexico City.

To this announcement, American Airlines made on the opening of three new routes from New York (JFK) to Bogotá, Cali and Medellín from May 6, and the new Jetblue route from New York (JFK) to Bogotá that started operations from February 10 and its new announcement, Newark-Cartagena starting from July 1.