The new air routes that will operate in Colombia

In recent hours, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism confirmed that it approved seven new air routes in the country, out of 10 planned for this year. They reported that the objective of creating these new routes is to improve the connectivity of the country's tourist areas, in addition to economic stimuli and promotion by the Government.

In this regard, Ministers María Ximena Lombana highlighted that these seven new routes were selected after a convening process opened by the Ministry and which brought good results. “Places with great tourist potential and high historical and ecological value such as Tolú and La Macarena, will finally have direct routes from Bogotá and Medellín, respectively. This generates a great benefit for tourism and the development of the regions.”

In this regard, the routes selected by the executive will guarantee direct connections between tourist regions such as the Eastern Plains with the Coffee Axis, or the Pacific with the beaches of Córdoba or La Guajira, among others.

The routes chosen, as well as the respective airlines that will operate them are the following:

1. Avianca: Bucaramanga – Cali

2. Avianca: Cali – Riohacha

3. Satena: Bogota — Tolú

4. Satena: Medellin — La Macarena

5. Easyfly: Barranquilla – Valledupar

6. Easyfly: Pereira — Villavicencio

7. Viva: Cali — Monteria

According to the Ministry of Commerce, these airlines will receive government economic and promotional incentives. On the other hand, to complete the 10 new routes planned by the entity, they also pointed out that before the end of March a new call will be opened for airlines to propose the remaining three routes.

It should be noted that the proposals that are selected by the Ministry are those with the greatest tourism potential and, like the first seven, these new ones will receive financial support for promotion.

Ricardo Galindo Bueno, Deputy Minister of Tourism, explained that in April, regional tables will be set up in which local governments, hotels, travel agencies, and tourism service providers from the different regions of the country will participate; this with the intention of achieving the integration of all actors in the departments and ensure their coordination in order to provide visitors with high quality products.

The Ministry indicated that with the 10 new routes, what they seek is for more than 30,000 new tourists to connect with the different areas of the country in 2022, and that in this way tourism is one of the main sectors that will boost the country's economy. It is expected that by the month of May all the new routes will already be operating and facilitating the mobility of travelers to these tourist destinations in the country.

In February, when the first call was opened, Minister Lomabana had already told Semana magazine that they intended to “stimulate tourism in the regions, promote connectivity and move forward in the process we are promoting to move from safe economic recovery to consolidated economic growth”.

For the first half of this 2022, several airlines operating in the country have planned new air routes for travelers. According to Portafolio, one of the first to announce a new route was Latam, launching the Bogotá connection with Neiva.

Avianca also announced that it would have options for Cartagena-San Jose, Cartagena-New York and Medellin-San Jose on March 27; Medellin-Riohacha and Medellin-Orlando, on the 29th of the same month; and Bogota-Ipiales, on May 16. Viva Air, for its part, announced 14 new routes for this month of March, with which it will reach cities such as Valledupar, Neiva, Pasto, Villavicencio and Armenia.

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