Travel by plane in Colombia It has become a complex situation for many families, since air tickets had a 42.2% increaseaccording to figures from National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane).
(Elimination of preferential VAT affected air traffic in January).
The factors behind this increase, as explained by Thomas Allier, CEO of the flight search engine Viajala.comare “First, the operating costs of the airlines are in dollars and the price of the peso has devalued a lot this year compared to 2022 or even 2021. The second is the war in Ukraine, since it has caused the price to rise of fuel, making it more expensive, this being one of the most important operating costs for an airline and it ends up being paid by the user”.
(The airline JetSmart begins the purchase process of Ultra Air).
This has been reflected in the prices to various destinations, which, thanks in the same way to the crisis that the Colombian aeronautical sector is going through, they have also seen increases in their rates.
(Government complaint to Viva Air already leaves effects on tourism).
Within the data of Viajala.com, the domestic flights that have shown the greatest increase, taking as a reference the prices that these flights had in the year 2022are:
– San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (90%).
– Cartagena (46%).
– Santa Marta (42%).
In the case of the archipelago, this increase was possible due to the closure of operations of the airline Viva Air, which covered 50% of the flights to there.
(Will air tickets have prices like those of pre-pandemic again?).
“San Andrés and many other routes had a huge participation of Viva. The short-term impact of the closure of operations is very strong. We believe that Colombia continues to be a sufficiently competitive market, since new players such as Ultra Air have entered. Latam has a significant market share and new flights to San Andrés will surely be attributed to other airlines. It will take time, but we think things should go back to normal.Allier added.
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