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In a dialogue with Dinero, the director of the Aerocivil, Juan Carlos Salazar,




announced that as a result of 21 bilateral negotiations with the same number of countries, the legal and technical conditions were established that will allow Colombian airlines and those countries to open new routes and frequencies. .

For example, agreements were established with the governments of Greece, Guyana, Rwanda, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, Bahamas, Cape Verde, South Africa, Sweden, Norway and Denmark for this type of service. Likewise, existing agreements were modernized with: Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, the United States and the Netherlands, and an Air Services Agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia.

It is now up to the airlines of those countries and of Colombia to review the opportunities to specify new routes and number of flights per week.

In fact, there are already some airlines that are looking at these options and evaluate expanding or starting operations in the country. This is the case of Ethiopian Airlines, which already operates some flights for cargo from El Dorado, and would be looking at options to start a passenger route to Africa (with possible stopover in Brazil).

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Other airlines that would be reviewing numbers to fly from Colombia are: Norwegian, which could open routes to Scandinavia and Saudia Airlines, which could propose frequencies and cargo routes to and from the Middle East.

As a result of these agreements signed a couple of weeks ago, other companies that already have a presence in the country contemplate expanding the frequencies or starting new routes. For example, the Dutch KLM, would be looking at the possibility of expanding the 5 weekly frequencies that they have today and whose flights are almost 100% covered throughout the year.

"Likewise, Jamaica and the Bahamas have shown interest in having a direct route to those countries from Colombia. That is why these administrations seek to attract Colombian airlines to provide these services. With the United States, the agreement was updated and there are already several interested parties to increase cargo flights with Colombia, "explained Salazar.

Colombia already has agreements with 61 countries to expand the air market. Negotiations with these countries foresee unlimited frequencies and routes, with the exception of Greece, which limited the agreement to 14 frequencies. This total opening of air services is what in more colloquial terms is called: open skies.

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If the airlines respond with routes and frequencies, the final user who is the tourist or traveler will be benefited to the extent that they can fly to those destinations without so much scale and with better rates. However, companies take a little care when opening new markets, taking into account that - on average - US $ 1 million is invested in logistics expenses, permits and land personnel.

The goal of the Aerocivil is to make Colombia the best connected country by air in Latin America by 2030. They are barely 12 years old.

Is there room for so many people?

The next challenge for the authorities will be to provide sufficient conditions and space for these new routes, airlines and frequencies. Needless to say, Odinsa presented a private initiative to expand the airport that commits investments for US $ 3,000 million and that the "ball" remained on the side of the Government that will have to evaluate its convenience and conditions.

While this extension of the El Dorado airport is defined and the new Cartagena airport is specified, as well as the expansions in Santa Marta, Cali and Medellin, the Aerocivil would receive the new routes and airlines during non-peak hours, that is, at times like mid-morning or after 9 pm, when the usual traffic drops a little.

However, that will not be enough and it is necessary to expand the infrastructure. We will see in the short and medium term if these new routes and the expansion of boarding bridges and more technology are going at the same speed.

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