The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in the company of Minister Ximena Lombana; the Ministry of Transportation headed by Ángela María Orozco y Fontur, this Thursday presented the 10 new routes awarded within the FNTP-224-2021 project for the “promotion of new destinations and/or National routes”, in order to directly connect the territories and strengthen regional tourism.
(The first seven new air routes in Colombia are listed).
The new routes are part of the ‘Fly Without Stopping’ campaign‘, which includes an incentive for promotion to the winning airlines of the call. According to the Minister of Commerce Ximera Lombana, the start-up of these new routes will allow the arrival of 30,000 new tourists, “7,000 of them in the mid-year season,” she added.
This project entailed an investment of $850 million in promotion, in order to publicize these new opportunities that tourists in the country have, in new places in the national territory that did not have direct routes.
“All of the new routes will be operating before June 30, some of them have even already started operating (…) this guarantees a benefit for travelers in terms of time and connectivity, in addition to the positive impact on the regions due to the flow of visitors”, indicated Minister Lombana.
The new destinations are in the hands of Avianca, Satena, EasyFly, Viva and Pacifica airlines on the routes Bucaramanga – Cali, Cali – Riohacha, Bogotá – Tolú, Medellín – La Macarena, Barranquilla – Valledupar, Pereira – Villavicencio, Cali – Montería, Armenia – Cartagena, Armenia – San Andrés and Medellín – Capurganá. Some of these destinations did not have a regular operation.
At the event, the director of Civil Aeronautics, Jair Orlando Fajardo, highlighted the commitment made by the airlines to this project. “This project is very important to decongest the country, and connect it between regions. We thank the operators, these five who are with us today, who believed in this call, carrying state-of-the-art equipment”, he stated.
(Air routes that are released in Colombia in the first half of 2022).
Furthermore, with the arrival of these new routes, the Civil Aeronautics expects to close the year with a increased passenger movement. “The air sector is growing in a very important way, we closed last year with 30,500,000 passengers and we hope to close this year with 45,600,000 passengers mobilized in the country, that is, an increase of almost 50%”, concluded Fajardo .
In turn, the Minister of Transportation, Ángela María Orozco, highlighted the good path that the airline and tourism industry has taken in the country, in addition to the solidity that these routes will provide to the sector.
“Today, the positive results are more than evident, since in the first four months of this year, the number of passengers reached 14.7 million, an increase of 14.7% compared to the same period in 2019 and 111.5 % compared to the same period in 2021,” said Minister Ángela María Orozco.
In addition, something to note is that these new routes contribute to caring for the environment, since by using a single flight to connect two points, polluting emissions are reduced. It is estimated that around 275,000 visitors will enter the country this June.
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