RICARIZA From Colombia, joined Apr 2005, 2356 posts, RR: 29 Posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 1 hour ago) and read 1313 times:
Satena to San Andrés
With the purpose of contributing with the development of the region, the state airline Satena took back last Monday the route San Andre's-Providencia-San Andrés, with two daily flights at 7:30 am and 4 of afternoon, with comfortable rates without taxes for tourists and native residents. Satena will cover this route as a support to the population within the islands, that made a call to the company so that it will retake the route since at the present time they do not count on effective aerial transport service. This route will be operated in an airplane LET-410, of European manufacture with capacity for 19 passengers.
The article also talks about the increase of flights of AV, but that is already on another thread.
Information about these beautiful Colombian Islands in the Caribbean Sea:
San Andres is a small 26-square-km coral island. Volcanic-origin Providence is even smaller (just 19 square kilometers) with the addition of the Santa Catalina islet linked to it by a floating bridge. This group of inhabited islets and keys make up an isolated archipelago in the hugeness of the Caribbean Sea some 711 kilometers off Colombian coasts and 230 km away from Central American shores. If you happen to feel like Robinson Crusoe one day, then San Andres and Providence are quiet getaways to get lost in. San Andres and Providence sound like reggae and calypso, like waves that crawl over white-sand beaches and break against the coral reefs. There are wooden houses with open doors and windows, and streets throbbing with mischievous kids. Islands that bring back memories of pirates, slaves, missionaries and adventure-seekers.
I miss ACES, I am proud of AVIANCA & I am loyal to AMERICAN
RICARIZA From Colombia, joined Apr 2005, 2356 posts, RR: 29 Reply 4, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 9 hours ago) and read 1250 times:
Quoting Bogota (Reply 3): Native people do call it Old Providence. So were not that wrong either
I thought about that one too, but I wasn't sure because I guess Old Providence is the whole archipelago..
But anyway, going back to the topic, I have a few questions:
1- The only flight previous to this one, was the West Caribbean with a LET-410 right? so I don't get why the 50% drop.. did they use to operate two flights daily?
2- Does Satena still have a Let-410? They didn't show it on their website. It says that they operate the Do328s and the ERJ-145s, are they planning to lease/buy the LET-410 used by West or another?
3-Is the LET-410 just for this route? Because of its range of only 600 miles?
I miss ACES, I am proud of AVIANCA & I am loyal to AMERICAN
Legacy135 From Switzerland, joined May 2005, 1052 posts, RR: 29 Reply 5, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 8 hours ago) and read 1246 times:
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): 2- Does Satena still have a Let-410? They didn't show it on their website. It says that they operate the Do328s and the ERJ-145s, are they planning to lease/buy the LET-410 used by West or another?
3-Is the LET-410 just for this route? Because of its range of only 600 miles?
I guess they do the right thing, looking for the former West Let, for doing this route with. The Do328 would probably perform on PVA's runway as well, but it would result in a very expensive operation. We had a couple of Do operators here in Switzerland and Middle Europe. The Do was always highly praised for it's superb comfort and the jet like performance but accepting much shorter runways. Only operators with a real niche could make it profitable. It does look as a very good aircraft for Satena in hot an high environment with little infrastructure. But what they need on those routes are passengers paying the right prices as well.....
So I think for an ops like the ADZ-PVA shuttle the Let is perfect. It's a short hop, so no pressurization needed and the Let's ability will cater perfect the needs of people moving between the islands as it will take also decent cargo loads.
Does Satena fly the Do between BOG and PVA? I was reading somewhat about in the A.Net but could not find it in Satenas homepage. On this route, by the way, I think the Do would be the perfect tool, as we do not even need to think about the ERJ in regard with PVA's runway.
RCS763AV From Colombia, joined Jun 2004, 4284 posts, RR: 13 Reply 6, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 6 hours ago) and read 1238 times:
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): 1- The only flight previous to this one, was the West Caribbean with a LET-410 right? so I don't get why the 50% drop.. did they use to operate two flights daily?
No, West operated the route 4x daily with Let-420, thats why I say its a 50% drop.
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): 2- Does Satena still have a Let-410? They didn't show it on their website. It says that they operate the Do328s and the ERJ-145s, are they planning to lease/buy the LET-410 used by West or another?
Yes it must be the West one. Right now Satenas fleet only has Emb-145 and Dp-328.
SOUTHAMERICA From Colombia, joined Dec 2003, 2496 posts, RR: 15 Reply 8, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 5 hours ago) and read 1238 times:
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): The only flight previous to this one, was the West Caribbean with a LET-410 right? so I don't get why the 50% drop.. did they use to operate two flights daily?
As mentioned, West flew four times a day, which was an astronomic offer for the real demand between San Andres and Providencia.
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): Does Satena still have a Let-410?
Still? Remember Satena has never operated LET-410 on regularly scheduled service in the past.
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): They didn't show it on their website. It says that they operate the Do328s and the ERJ-145s, are they planning to lease/buy the LET-410 used by West or another?
Currently, Searca is operating one [or two] of its LET-410 on behalf of Satena. It's not Satena who operates them, hence the company sees no need to mention them among its fleet. I imagine that these are the ones that are going to be deployed for the ADZ-PVA runs.
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 4): Is the LET-410 just for this route? Because of its range of only 600 miles?
No, the LET-410 is adequate for many of Satena's routes, especially some of the ones out of EOH.
Quoting RCS763AV (Reply 6): No, West operated the route 4x daily with Let-420, thats why I say its a 50% drop.
West operated 4x daily because otherwise the airplane would sit around in the apron in San Andres doing nothing; West couldn't afford such luxuries given that they were a private company, so, in the end, it was better for them to send the LET-410 to PVA with 9-10, medium yielding-passengers, than to leave it parked.
Satena will have no problem in operating just 2 daily flights, which is the perfect offer for the demand between San Andres and Providencia. This will secure that flights go out full or nearly full most of the time, instead of the weak 60% of load average load factor that West was registering.
Quoting RCS763AV (Reply 6): Yes it must be the West one. Right now Satenas fleet only has Emb-145 and Dp-328.
As I already mentioned, Searca has been operating one of its LET-410 for Satena for more than a year now. It was initally leased for high-travelling periods. It operates mainly out of EOH.
Quoting Avianca (Reply 7): does not make sense, to put a 328 in ADZ just for one daily flight to PVA.
That will probably never happen. I don't know the techinical details about the situation, but I have the feeling that the runway in PVA is too short for the rocket-powered Dornier 328. Don't quote me on this, it's just a guess.
Anyway, I do believe that Satena has its Dorniers assigned, currently, on much more important routes. The airline operates 6 Do-328; 3 are based in EOH, 2 in BOG and 1 in CLO.
Avianca From Venezuela, joined Jan 2005, 5857 posts, RR: 40 Reply 9, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 5 hours ago) and read 1226 times:
Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 8): Anyway, I do believe that Satena has its Dorniers assigned, currently, on much more important routes
totally correct.
Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 8): I don't know the techinical details about the situation, but I have the feeling that the runway in PVA is too short for the rocket-powered Dornier 328. Don't quote me on this, it's just a guess
RCS763AV From Colombia, joined Jun 2004, 4284 posts, RR: 13 Reply 10, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 4 hours ago) and read 1221 times:
Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 8): West operated 4x daily because otherwise the airplane would sit around in the apron in San Andres doing nothing; West couldn't afford such luxuries given that they were a private company, so, in the end, it was better for them to send the LET-410 to PVA with 9-10, medium yielding-passengers, than to leave it parked.
Actually, those flights were impossible to get in the high season.
Quoting Avianca (Reply 9): I think the runway in PVA should be ok for the Do
Yes, Satena flew a charter BOG-PVA or CTG-PVA dont remeber, to prmote services to the island (there was an article with pictures) so the Do should do fine. The runway is 1450m long.
Avianca From Venezuela, joined Jan 2005, 5857 posts, RR: 40 Reply 14, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 3 hours ago) and read 1206 times:
Quoting SoAmSky (Reply 13): I read that PVA runway was lengthened not long ago, so it's now able to get bigger aircrafts such as the Dornier operated by Satena.
it would be nice to see diect flights from the mainland, such as from mde and bog, it would be a good route for aires with the DHC-8 for example.
RICARIZA From Colombia, joined Apr 2005, 2356 posts, RR: 29 Reply 15, posted (7 years 10 months 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 1185 times:
Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 8): West operated 4x daily because otherwise the airplane would sit around in the apron in San Andres doing nothing; West couldn't afford such luxuries given that they were a private company, so, in the end, it was better for them to send the LET-410 to PVA with 9-10, medium yielding-passengers, than to leave it parked.
This one was one of my questions, maybe I didn't explain well. Is the LET that Satena plans to use, going to be just for this route? In other words, the time that is not flying can it be used for another route? I guess not, right?
By the way, thanks for all the answers...
I miss ACES, I am proud of AVIANCA & I am loyal to AMERICAN
SOUTHAMERICA From Colombia, joined Dec 2003, 2496 posts, RR: 15 Reply 16, posted (7 years 10 months 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 1182 times:
Quoting SoAmSky (Reply 13): I read that PVA runway was lengthened not long ago, so it's now able to get bigger aircrafts such as the Dornier operated by Satena.
Interesting. The registered lenght of PVA still shows a hardly 3800 feet long runway. I repeat, I have no idea of technical details, but if it's bizarre to see a Do-328 rocketing into Bahia Solano or Guapi, which is almost 4300 feet long, I cannot imagine the picture of those birds arriving into Providencia with the runway's original length.
Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 15): This one was one of my questions, maybe I didn't explain well. Is the LET that Satena plans to use, going to be just for this route? In other words, the time that is not flying can it be used for another route? I guess not, right?
Well, in theory, it could continue doing other routes from ADZ, like, for example, to CTG or BAQ. It's not that strange, West used to operate LET-410 from San Andres to Cartagena in the late-90s, when they had a bigger presence in the island.
But I'm pretty sure Satena won't be doing that. First of all, the market is very thin, Barranquilla already enjoys its own nonstops to San Andres, and no other city of the Caribbean coast could support a nonstop to San Andres profitably year-round.
And second, Satena has no customer base in the coast, and they have no tradition of flying to such region; they don't even fly to the most important cities like Barranquilla or Cartagena from the interior.
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