Avianca to Introduce Flights to San Juan

Colombian national carrier Avianca is to introduce a new connection between its hub at El Dorado International Airport in the nation’s capital Bogotá and Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico and the oldest city on US territory. The airline will launch a three times weekly service from July 17, 2013 using an Airbus A319 configured with 12 Business Class and 108 Economy seats.

The new service will bring the first the first non-stop link between the two destinations and will place pressure on a city pair market dominated by Copa Airlines via its Tocumen International Airport hub in Panama City. In 2012 an estimated 22,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between Bogotá and the Caribbean destination of San Juan, a market that Avianca has previously had very little penetration. It is dominated by Copa Airlines with a 68.5 per cent share of the traffic, followed by American Airlines (17.2 per cent) via Miami International and low-fare carrier JetBlue Airways (9.0 per cent) via Orlando International and Fort Lauderdale.

“Avianca is delighted to give travelers access to this new destination, which is world-renowned due to its famous attractions which are perfect places for rest and pleasure. We hope that this route achieves the desired effect given the growth of the tourism and business market between Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Fabio Villegas Ramírez, President, Avianca.

Alongside the point-to-point demand the new service will also enhance connectivity from San Juan to a range of destinations with connection opportunities being offered from Bogotá to Panama, Caracas, Quito, Guayaquil, Lima, Río de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, and also to the principal cities of Colombia to the new flight.

Alongside the 22,000 O&D passengers flying between San Juan and Bogotá in 2012, a further 19,000 passengers flew to or from other destinations across Colombia, while almost 102,000 flew between San Juan and destinations across the entire South American market. Analysis of O&D passenger demand for 2012 shows that Colombia is the largest market in South America from/to San Juan with a 40.6 per cent share with Bogotá the second largest source or end market behind the Venezuelan capital Caracas. In the table below we highlight the ten largest O&D markets from/to San Juan in 2012.