Flights in Ecuador fail to recover the frequencies from before the pandemic

The start of this 2021 anticipates a complicated scenario. In January, 66.75% of passengers were mobilized in Guayaquil less than in the same month of 2020.

Almost a year afterHealth emergency by the coronavirus,which led to suspend commercial flights in Ecuador for about three months, aerial frequencies fail to reach prepa, airlines and airlines continue to adjust their operations.

Frequencies range between 20% and 50% of what was had before the health emergency. In addition, there are international flights to Europe that operate with restrictions on the policies of each country.

With a recovery of passenger traffic that marches slower than expected, airlines continue to shrink their templates, they keep suspended routes or limited frequencies in an attempt to support themselves in a contracted market.

Latam EcuadorHe has trimmed staff working in airports and has decided to ‘outsourize’ passenger service operations through certified companies. The firm has indicated that even when it sees positive signs towards recovery, the operation still does not exceed 50% in relation to the prepaandemics. Estimate an equally slow scenario for the coming months.

The airline has declined to make comments beyond a statement in which it specifies that it tries that external suppliers incorporate their payrolls to the vast majority of officials who leave the company.

Marcos Subía, President of the Association of Representatives of Airlines in Ecuador,He maintains that the search for external suppliers to deal with some services such as Latam is a figure not only used in Ecuador, but in other countries.

The union leader indicates that the lack of generalized vaccination, the requirements and travel restrictions that some countries have so that the air industry cannot take off. "A recovery is complicated as these factors continue to exist," he says.

In Ecuador it is estimated that the pandemic put at risk 5,000 employment places of the 12,500 direct jobs generated by the industry. One of the airlines that succumbed in the middle of the health crisis was Tame, which is in the process of liquidation. Only Tame, which already dragged economic problems, had more than 1,000 employees, of which about a hundred remains resolving settlement issues.

Avianca,Another of the airlines competing in the national market has not managed to recover all the frequencies it had before the pandemic. Since last year, for example, flights with regular itinerary between Quito and Coca are suspended.

The company refers that it is working on the reactivation of this route according to the recovery of the demand, which estimates for the first semester of 2021.

Other itineraries towards the Galapagos Islands continue to operate, but with less frequencies. That is a destination that has not escaped the reduction of passengers, especially foreigners. At the end of January, Avianca had three weekly frequencies to the islands, which represented 20% of the offer it maintained before the pandemic.

The company operates the Quito-Guayaquil-Quito routes, Quito-Manta-Quito, Quito-Guayaquil-San Cristóbal-Guayaquil-Quito, Quito-Guayaquil-Galápagos-Guayaquil-Quito.

"At the moment there is a greater recovery on the domestic routes where approximately 70 % occupations have been reached on the Quito-Guayaquil route, which is the most demand," says Avianca.

In the main Ecuadorian airports it is indicated that destinations to the United States have responded better towards a recovery, but others such as Spain and Holland are limiting for the restriction policies that these countries have.

KLM,For example, it only brings passengers from the Netherlands, but it only leaves with load from Ecuador because the citizens of South America cannot enter that territory.

The airport figures reveal that since June 2020, the month that the air operations were reopened, passenger traffic was growing gradually, but not at the 2019 levels.

growth was in the order of 20% in dollars and 8% in volume, compared to 2020. Until December, this segment managed to place $18,091 million in different destinations worldwide.Guayaquil Airport ended 2020 with 1′389.328 passengers(national and international), a very distant figure from3′970.573which mobilized in 2019, according to figures from theAirports Council International, ACI-LAC.

The start of this 2021 anticipates a complicated scenario, because in January they mobilized in Guayaquil 113,990 passengers (national and foreign), 66.75% less compared to 342,843 passengers of the same month of 2020.

And that in a global reality, thenIATA,Organism that brings together the main airlines of the world, announced yesterday that the crisis in the sector deepened in January, since international traffic collapsed 86% in the month compared to the levels prior to the crisis, while national air traffic decreased 47%.