Direct Flight from US to San Andres island in Caribbean to start in June 2010

According to RCN (Colombian news):

Starting June 2010, Spirit Airlines will operate a direct flight from Fort Lauderdale, USA to the island of San Andres (in Colombia).

The announcement was made by Deputy Minister of Tourism, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Oscar Rueda Garcia, who said this is an opportunity for the island to capture the U.S. market. According to him, 10 years ago there was no direct flight from that country to San Andres.

The Deputy Minister, together with aviation authorities and the governor of the department, met in Miramar, Florida with the airline's president, Ben Baldanza, to define aspects of the new operation.

source:
http://www.rcnradio.com/noticias/econom/10-12-09/nueva-ruta-rea-san-andr-s-fort-lauderdale

Avianca and Taca to combine forces

Two prominent airlines in Latin America are merging forces, although they will keep their separate identities, it seems. TACA focuses on Central America with flights to North and South America (especially Peru). Avianca is centered in Colombia. Together, they will provide great connections and travel possibilities for those wishing to get to Colombia, and to get around Latin America as well.

According to Routes Online:

Avianca, the national carrier of Colombia and TACA, which has a tri-hub strategy with its hubs based in Lima, San Jose and El Salvador has announced plans to merge from next year.

The merger will see the coming together of two of the largest carriers in the Latin American market.

The move will create cost synergies from cost savings from the operational side of the business with procurement and employee numbers working in Aircraft, Ground Staff, Fuel, Airport Charges and Customer Services. The fleet and networks of the two carriers will be largely complimentary.

TACA has three hubs, operating 31 aircraft with a mainly short/medium haul range, including A319/A320/A321 and E-190, where as Avianca operates 46 aircraft with larger aircraft such as their B767-300 ER and A330-200, it also has 12x B787 on order.

Avianca operates 2111 weekly frequencies from Bogota, whereas TACA from its three hubs operates 806 weekly services. In terms of their network, TACA currently operate 36 destinations whereas Avainca operates 43, however there is crossover on only 9 destinations, including Buenos Aires, JFK, Washington Dulles and Mexico City.

The merger will see TACA gain access to Avianca long haul destinations in Europe, notably Barcelona and Mexico which gives TACA passengers access to these large hispanic VFR markets from any TACA destination, on the same ticket, this also creates extra feed into the Avinca long haul routes. The merger will also help the combined carrier compete with LAN on these lucrative European markets, which given its presence across several countries in Latin America allows it to feed high volumes of domestic traffic to its International network.

The merger will lead to the combined airline being one of the largest carriers in Latin America.

Note: The above route maps may not be current, and are for illustrative purposes only.

New Intermational Flights to Colombia

This picture has nothing to do with international flights, but is more interesting than another airplane.

From Colombia Reports:

Colombian Aviation authorities granted 20 new international routes permissions to Colombian airlines in an attempt to bring the ticket price down and boost international trips, newspaper La Republica reported Wednesday.

The permission, which will make the airlines less dependent on domestic flights, was granted to Avianca, Aires and Aero República.

Aires will add weekly flights from Bogota to New York and back, and daily frecuencies from Barranquilla, Cali, and Cartagena to Fort Lauderdale in Florida. It will also fly the Bogota-Sao Paulo, and Rionegro-Mexico City frequencies, with Boeing 373-700 aircrafts.

Aviaca will fly Bogota-Orlando-Bogota everyday, and Bogota-San Jose (Costa RIca)-Bogota. It will also add frequencies from Bogota to Sao Paulo, Fort Laudrdale, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Aruba, and Curaçao.

Aero Republica will add the fequencies from Bogota to Santo Domingo, Aruba, San Jose (Costa Rica), Panama, Sao Paulo, and Miami.

The report says that Colombia aviation authorities are brokering a bilateral agreement with Dubai for new direct flights between the two countries.