Colombia’s international air travel capacity already exceeds pre-pandemic levels

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia completed 196,348 seats and 1,147 weekly international air travel frequencies, which already exceeded pre-pandemic levels, reported the state agency ProColombia.

“With 27 airlines operating in ten cities in the country, Colombia reaches 103.1% of the seats and 100.4% of the international frequencies that operated in February 2020,″ highlighted that entity.

It also noted that ten cities in the country have direct international connections with 42 destinations in 26 countries.

It also quotes the Official Aviation Guide (OAG) to highlight that Colombia is among the 20 countries with the largest air capacity globally. In Latin America, it is the third, after Brazil and Mexico.

The recovery of frequencies also coincides with new competitors in the Colombian market, such as the Chilean airline SKY, which landed in the country in January last year.

In August, Mexican airlines Viva Aerobus and Volaris arrived in the country, operating for the first time in South America.

In December, the Colombian SARPA began regular international operations, and JetAir arrived to strengthen connectivity with the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the Spanish airline Plus Ultra is expected to arrive next July.

“Other international airlines such as KLM and AirFrance have announced the expansion of their worldwide network, increasing their number of weekly frequencies with Colombia,” he said.

The flow of Colombian travelers abroad exceeded 300,000 last February, an increase of 5% compared to the more than 287,000 that departed in the same month of 2019, reported the Colombian Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (Anato).

In February, the countries where the flow of Colombian travelers grew the most were the Dominican Republic (108%), Mexico (85%), Chile (53%), Spain (40%), and the United States (11%).

February was “the first month, after the reactivation, in which the pre-pandemic records have been surpassed,” highlighted Anato when affirming that “tourism has ratified to be one of the best allies for the country’s economic recovery”.

Between January and February last year, 689,403 Colombians went abroad, which represents a reactivation of 95%.

For the Easter season, Anato expects close to 133,000 Colombians to travel abroad, which would mean a 6% growth compared to the same season in 2019.

With information from Bloomberg Línea