By Juan Pedro Sanchez Zamudio
Avianca To Resume Its International Operations From El Salvador
After more than six months without operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Avianca has announced it is ready to gradually resume its flights from its hub in El Salvador on September 19, once the authorities allow the arrival and departure of international flights to the country.
In its initial connectivity plan, the airline plans to reach nine destinations with the highest demand in Central and North America. The carrier will use a fleet of Airbus A319 and A320, with capacity for 120 and 150 passengers respectively.
The airline’s round trip flights in Central America, from San Salvador, El Salvador will be to Guatemala, Guatemala; San Pedro de Sula, Honduras; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Managua, Nicaragua.
The airline’s round trip flights to the US will be to Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Washington and San Francisco; and from Managua, Nicaragua will be to Miami.
Avianca also reported that this itinerary is subject to changes in origin, date and time due to government restrictions whilst indicating that other destinations will be added to the route network to the extent that air operations are enabled.
Avianca announced that the carrier has been working on biosecurity protocols with the highest standards to give passengers the confidence necessary to fly again. These protocols were successfully implemented in more than 330 special flights in which more than 34,380 people have been transported through Central America.
As discussed, Avianca returned to the Colombian skies on September 1, connecting Bogotá to destinations such as Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín, Montería, Pereira and San Andrés; and from September 7 operations from Bogotá to Pasto, Santa Marta and Villavicencio, and from Medellín to Cali and Cartagena.
After a week of reactivating domestic flights in the country under the strictest biosecurity protocols, Avianca announced the results of its first week of flight reactivation in Colombia, in which the carrier transported more than 27,380 passengers on 302 flights.
For these operations, the Colombian airline used 20 aircraft from its fleet, utilizing the A320 and ATR72. The carrier expects to increase its operations as more flight capacity is authorized in the country.
Avianca has not reported any difficulty in its itineraries in a context where biosafety protocols are required that take longer than usual. This achievement has been possible, due to coordinated work between authorities, airports and airlines, but also to the punctuality of the passengers and in general to the coordination throughout the aviation chain.
The three things Juan Pedro loves most about aviation are aircraft, airports, and traveling thousands of miles in just a few hours. What he enjoys the most about aviation is that it is easier and cheaper to travel around the world and this gives you the opportunity to visit places you thought were too far away. He has traveled to different destinations in North, Central, South America and Asia. Born, raised and still living in Perú, Juan is a lawyer, soccer lover, foodie, passionate traveler, dog lover, millennial and curious by nature.
