asuflyer wrote:

It would appear Volaris Costa Rica is not doing so well. LAX and IAD have been reduced from SAL and JFK temporarily suspended.

It's not a healthy sign.
They offered in past flights from Central America to Guadalajara and Tijuana; both no longer in service.

Regards.

Volaris CEO Enrique Beltranena mention that they continue to certified Volaris El Salvador

https://diario.elmundo.sv/volaris-incor ... -salvador/

Let’s hope that leads to a robust and competitive network across Central America. What is the benefit of having a subsidiary from SAL that the Costa Rican cannot offer?

Aeromar intends to start operations in Guatemala

https://dca.gob.gt/noticias-guatemala-d ... guatemala/


Apparently flights between GUA-FRS, FRS-CUN, and Tapachula-FRS.

avi8 wrote:

Aeromar intends to start operations in Guatemala

https://dca.gob.gt/noticias-guatemala-d ... guatemala/


Apparently flights between GUA-FRS, FRS-CUN, and Tapachula-FRS.

I did mention this weeks ago. Have my doubts but hope it is true.
At this moment Aeromar does not operate flights to Cancun and Tapachula.

Juanchito

How are they getting Domestic rights FRS GUA?

LightChop2Chop wrote:

How are they getting Domestic rights FRS GUA?

I have no idea. Maybe they are opening a subsidiary. The airlines has not said anything, but both Government has said that they will launch routes.

Juanchito

Air Canada is not flying to Central America since some months ago.

Strange incident on AA DFW-SAL, June 28th 2021.
The 738 couldn't land at SAL due to metherological conditions and was diverted to LIR.
However, Liberia closed at midnight and it couldn't attend that operation, despite the fact the plane was experiencied shortage of fuel.

Press release in Spanish language: https://www.teletica.com/nacional/avion-con-poco-combustible-pidio-aterrizar-en-liberia-pero-no-le-dieron-permiso_288658

https://www.excelenciaspanama.com/trans ... rta-panama

TK to increase PTY & BOG to 5 weekly

Seems like CTM, on the border with Belize (hence why I put this in this thread) is getting North American service from AA. As is San Andres.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-air ... 00113.html

British Airways Considers Abandoning London Gatwick. Interesting article that states that the recovery of the air travel industry according to BA's predictions is going to be driven by leisure instead of business oriented flights/destinations, justifying the idea to leave Gatwick completely to maintain their Heathrow slots. This is relevant to Costa Rica because in the medium to long run could mean that BA would be flying nonstop to SJO from Heathrow. This is not a confirmation of any sort but more just of a look at the bigger picture on how the industry is fighting to come back to pre-covid numbers.

To this day BA hasn't officially confirmed when they're coming back to Costa Rica, the airline asked the DGAC for an extension to keep the route suspended until November but when the time comes they could ask for another one.

Source:

https://airlinegeeks.com/2021/07/02/bri ... gatwick-2/

Air Europa from Spain was flying to Central America prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 era as UX MAD-PTY and UX MAD-SAP.
We'd hopefully expect for the resumption of their activities soon.

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Air Europa from Spain was flying to Central America prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 era as UX MAD-PTY and UX MAD-SAP.
We'd hopefully expect for the resumption of their activities soon.

Hasn’t the MAD-SAP route been operating for a few months now? I thought they re-started when SAP was reopened after the hurricanes.

skybird77 wrote:

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Air Europa from Spain was flying to Central America prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 era as UX MAD-PTY and UX MAD-SAP.
We'd hopefully expect for the resumption of their activities soon.

Hasn’t the MAD-SAP route been operating for a few months now? I thought they re-started when SAP was reopened after the hurricanes.

Yes they are operating once a week. They started flying before the Hurricanes and they used LCE when SAP was unavailable because of the flooding.

Regards.

In another forum here at A.net, it was mentioned that Delta will be operating flights between JFK and PTY, starting December 19. I checked on Delta's reservation page and it's indeed available.

Will be 4x weekly (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and operated with 737-800's.

REDHL wrote:

In another forum here at A.net, it was mentioned that Delta will be operating flights between JFK and PTY, starting December 19. I checked on Delta's reservation page and it's indeed available.

Will be 4x weekly (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and operated with 737-800's.

DL tried that once before and it didn't go well.
Given the current DL ATL-PTY-ATL schedule, CM has more chances to succeed on mornings PTY-ATL and mid-afternoon ATL-PTY than what DL might achieve on JFK-PTY.
Had DL decided DTW-PTY-DTW at least December and January, perhaps the outcome might be different.

2travel2know2 wrote:

REDHL wrote:

In another forum here at A.net, it was mentioned that Delta will be operating flights between JFK and PTY, starting December 19. I checked on Delta's reservation page and it's indeed available.

Will be 4x weekly (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and operated with 737-800's.

DL tried that once before and it didn't go well..

Times are different. 4X on JFK PTY could work. I don't think they intend to challenge CM. Probably they have a corporate contract of some kind that requires PTY plus some demand from Skyteam (VS etc) at JFK for feed.

on another note I see CM is increasing BZE starting later this year.

Did AA/DL ever operate MD-80s into SJO/LIR? For some reason I have memories for seeing an AA MD-80 in LIR in the early/mid 2010s but maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. I would sort of think an MD-80 at some point operated some of the DFW-SJO/LIR flights.

skybird77 wrote:

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Air Europa from Spain was flying to Central America prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 era as UX MAD-PTY and UX MAD-SAP.
We'd hopefully expect for the resumption of their activities soon.

Hasn’t the MAD-SAP route been operating for a few months now? I thought they re-started when SAP was reopened after the hurricanes.

They will now have 2 non-stop flights....2nd MAD-SAP-MAD flight starts on JUL 20TH.

N292UX wrote:

Did AA/DL ever operate MD-80s into SJO/LIR? For some reason I have memories for seeing an AA MD-80 in LIR in the early/mid 2010s but maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. I would sort of think an MD-80 at some point operated some of the DFW-SJO/LIR flights.

Not AA. Their MaDogs were not overwater equipped.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

N292UX wrote:

Did AA/DL ever operate MD-80s into SJO/LIR? For some reason I have memories for seeing an AA MD-80 in LIR in the early/mid 2010s but maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. I would sort of think an MD-80 at some point operated some of the DFW-SJO/LIR flights.

Perhaps any isolated operation or for maintenance works.
I don't remember their MD-80s neither on DL nor AA, serving scheduled flights in Costa Rica.
From the top of my mind, I had seen 737s, 757s and 767s from Delta Air Lines at SJO.

Regards.

LightChop2Chop wrote:

Times are different. 4X on JFK PTY could work. I don't think they intend to challenge CM.

Agreed.
By the end of 2007, DL started a venture to Central America out of New York City from JFK: GUA, PTY, SJO and LIR.
However, the mortgage crisis in 2008 stopped these flights as the jet-fuel rose to unsustanaible levels.
Given the recent incursion of B6 from JFK at GUA, SJO, LIR and SAP soon, DL would participate in that bulky market.
Bear in mind, DL JFK-SAL 7x weekly is actually in service and facing AV SAL-JFK 21x weekly.
The opening of DL JFK-PTY will face CM PTY-JFK 28x weekly who is leading this market.

Regards.

SJOtoLIR wrote:

LightChop2Chop wrote:

Times are different. 4X on JFK PTY could work. I don't think they intend to challenge CM.

Agreed.
By the end of 2007, DL started a venture to Central America out of New York City from JFK: GUA, PTY, SJO and LIR.
However, the mortgage crisis in 2008 stopped these flights as the jet-fuel rose to unsustanaible levels.
Given the recent incursion of B6 from JFK at GUA, SJO, LIR and SAP soon, DL would participate in that bulky market.
Bear in mind, DL JFK-SAL 7x weekly is actually in service and facing AV SAL-JFK 21x weekly.
The opening of DL JFK-PTY will face CM PTY-JFK 28x weekly who is leading this market.

Regards.

I wonder if DL is entering the PTY market from JFK, not to compete against CM, but rather to discourage B6 from entering the market.

Let's study how DL JFK-SAL is operating by now:

DL 1985...JFK 19.07.....22.19 SAL......Daily...738
DL 1984...SAL 23.39....06.19+1JFK....Daily...738

This schedule allocation allowing the "red-eye" itinerary on the northbound SAL-JFK doesn't interfere with the operations of AV SAL-JFK and back.
The intended DL JFK-PTY might follow a similar pattern.
Both B6 JFK-GUA and B6 JFK-SJO operate quite similar like DL JFK-SAL.

Tag Airlines just announce that will start operations between Guatemala City with Tapachula and Cancun.

August 13th Monday thew Friday
GUA-TAP 10:30 am - 12:15 pm
TAP-GUA 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm

August 19th Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays
GUA-CUN 10:00 am - 1:10 pm
CUN-GUA 2:10 pm - 3:20 pm

By October they say that flights will be daily.
All local times.

Juanchito

Air Europa (UX) restarted PTY and added a frequency to SAP

https://www.aviacionline.com/2021/07/ai ... -honduras/

not sure this was posted in another chat;

https://www.aviacionline.com/2021/07/av ... solo-jets/

this will have an impact on centralamerica market

copa330200 wrote:

not sure this was posted in another chat;

https://www.aviacionline.com/2021/07/av ... solo-jets/

this will have an impact on centralamerica market

All Central America ops by Avianca are done by Airbus aircraft.
All ATR have been retired, some went into storage, some of them went to Colombia. Two are still in Guatemala.

Juanchito

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Let's study how DL JFK-SAL is operating by now:

DL 1985...JFK 19.07.....22.19 SAL......Daily...738
DL 1984...SAL 23.39....06.19+1JFK....Daily...738

This schedule allocation allowing the "red-eye" itinerary on the northbound SAL-JFK doesn't interfere with the operations of AV SAL-JFK and back.
The intended DL JFK-PTY might follow a similar pattern.
Both B6 JFK-GUA and B6 JFK-SJO operate quite similar like DL JFK-SAL.

Well, according to DL's website, the itinerary for the upcoming JFK-PTY flights will be the following:

DL1753: JFK 08:30 - 13:45 PTY (S, M, W, F) - B738
DL1754: PTY 15:05 - 19:35 JFK (S, M, W, F) - B738

From the last press release:

Por el momento el consorcio aerocomercial latinoamericano constituido en Panamá, Avianca Holdings, cuenta con 11 aeronaves de este modelo con capacidad para 68 pasajeros, de los cuales 9 cumplen servicio en Colombia para Avianca Express y otros 2 para Avianca Guatemala.

There's no evidence about the ATRs operating in Guatemala as AV GUA-FRS is no longer in service, since many weeks ago.
Furthermore, other Central American routes operated in the past by their ATRs didn't show such equipment at this time. like AV GUA-TGU, AV SAL-TGU and AV SAL-SAP.
AV GUA-SAP and AV SAL-BZE never came back.

Odd schedule for UX SAP-MAD 2x weekly:



IB is not present in San Pedro Sula, whereas UX MAD-PTY is timed to match IB MAD-PTY,

F9 expansion from MCO and DEN to Central America. I see LIR and BZE, but sure there are more.
https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontier-a ... tinations/

LightChop2Chop wrote:

F9 expansion from MCO and DEN to Central America. I see LIR and BZE, but sure there are more.
https://news.flyfrontier.com/frontier-a ... tinations/

SAL-MCO twice a week stating 04NOV21 - Thu and Sat

Interesting developments on F9 !
DEN-BZE is currently served by UA, once a weekly. WN DEN-BZE was also in service before.
Both BZE and LIR would see the first non-stop service to Orlando.
SAL-MCO was a sector operated in the past by the binomium TA-AV.

Spirit Airlines became the first carrier to announce flights from the newly-established Palmerola International Airport (XPL) in Honduras, the airline announced Wednesday. John Kirby, Vice President of Network Planning at Spirit Airlines said Spirit will offer nonstop flights between
*Palmerola and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL) ***DAILY***,
*Miami International Airport (MIA) ***4X per week and
*George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) ***DAILY, starting Nov. 17, 2021, according to a news release from the airline.

Guests flying from the areas of Tegucigalpa and Comayagua will be able to connect through Fort Lauderdale to more than 35 cities in the United States.

Many PR sources:
https://simpleflying.com/spirit-tegucig ... a-airport/

Chele737 wrote:

Spirit Airlines became the first carrier to announce flights from the newly-established Palmerola International Airport (XPL) in Honduras, the airline announced Wednesday. John Kirby, Vice President of Network Planning at Spirit Airlines said Spirit will offer nonstop flights between
*Palmerola and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL) ***DAILY***,
*Miami International Airport (MIA) ***4X per week and
*George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) ***DAILY, starting Nov. 17, 2021, according to a news release from the airline.

Guests flying from the areas of Tegucigalpa and Comayagua will be able to connect through Fort Lauderdale to more than 35 cities in the United States.

Many PR sources:
https://simpleflying.com/spirit-tegucig ... a-airport/

They mention that the idea is that the airlines will shift flying out to XPL and I dont buy that at all. XPL is 90 KM to Tegucigalpa. I get that can work for NK because of their pricing structure but I dont see AA or UA following them out there.

Palmerola, Honduras has been extensively mentioned as the replacement of TGU.
That idea was stronger since the accident of TACA, in May 2008.
In those days, all their operations were drastically moved to XPL instead, but they slowly returned to TGU due to the lack of services over there: transportation, hospitals, proper highways from capital city, lack of restaurants and so forth.

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Interesting developments on F9 !
DEN-BZE is currently served by UA, once a weekly. WN DEN-BZE was also in service before.
Both BZE and LIR would see the first non-stop service to Orlando.
SAL-MCO was a sector operated in the past by the binomium TA-AV.

UA DEN BZE is showing as 4X for November onwards. WN resumes DEN BZE In November too. so that makes 3 carriers on DEN BZE

LIR - MCO should do well.

LightChop2Chop wrote:

UA DEN BZE is showing as 4X for November onwards. WN resumes DEN BZE In November too. so that makes 3 carriers on DEN BZE

For Belize City, that means more weekly flights heading to Denver than New York City.

Regards.

LightChop2Chop wrote:

LIR - MCO should do well.

Orlando could have been working purely as a leisure station for passengers coming from Central America.
On the other hand, Liberia is basically a tourist destination for foreign travelers.
Don't misundestand my point... For instance, some carriers fly the Orlando - Cancun sector.

Regards.

Over the years Orlando has grown from a place where people go to, to also to a place where people live. I know many from NY and IL who moved to the Orlando area following work that moved there due to cheaper costs, no income take for staff etc (for example JetBlue Vacations is there). AUS is another example of this. I would presume many of these people want to travel south for holidays.....and much like TX, they will want to go during the Summer (vs the winter).

MCO-LAtin/Caribbean flight development will be interesting to watch

CM to start flying to AXM (Armenia, Colombia) on December 2. 3 fx per week:
https://twitter.com/CopaAirlines/status ... 5168614402

CM has chosen AXM for international flights, rather than the expansion of its national subsidiary there.
NK FLL-AXM 4x weekly is active since 2009 and CM PTY-AXM 3x weekly would be the second international route from Armenia.

Kilgen wrote:

CM to start flying to AXM (Armenia, Colombia) on December 2. 3 fx per week:
https://twitter.com/CopaAirlines/status ... 5168614402

Having airports served in Colombia near each other, doesn't mean one will cannibalise the other traffic.

CLO AXM 034° (NE) 040° (NE) 76 mi
AXM PEI 004° (N) 011° (N) 25 mi

CTG BAQ 058° (NE) 066° (NE) 58 mi
BAQ SMR 067° (NE) 075° (E) 41 mi

CUC BGA 220° (SW) 229° (SW) 72 mi

(info from www.gcmap.com)

Note:
CM hasn't returned to CUC yet.
IMHO, PTY-SMR-PTY won't happen unless SMR beach hotels get a deal w/CM for something like Friday morning and Monday late afternoon flights..

Possible Colombian destinations awaiting PTY flights: Pasto PSO, Montería MTR; Villavicencio (Bogotá Sur !?) VVC very iffy.

Avianca is planning new routes from San Jose, Costa Rica: AV SJO-CLO, AV SJO-MGA as well as the resumption of AV SJO-LAX, AV SJO-JFK, AV SJO-MEX and AV SJO-MDE,

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Avianca is planning new routes from San Jose, Costa Rica: AV SJO-CLO, AV SJO-MGA as well as the resumption of AV SJO-LAX, AV SJO-JFK, AV SJO-MEX and AV SJO-MDE,

Wow, great news for SJO. Maybe Avianca will make a come back for the hub. Is there a press release?

avi8 wrote:

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Avianca is planning new routes from San Jose, Costa Rica: AV SJO-CLO, AV SJO-MGA as well as the resumption of AV SJO-LAX, AV SJO-JFK, AV SJO-MEX and AV SJO-MDE,

Wow, great news for SJO. Maybe Avianca will make a come back for the hub. Is there a press release?

Not a PR perse, but it is in many media news. SJO flights increase is part of a 23 new international routes from BOG, UIO, etc. GUAIAD is on that news too as well SALMCO.
https://worldairlinenews.com/2021/08/12 ... al-routes/

Chele737 wrote:

avi8 wrote:

SJOtoLIR wrote:

Avianca is planning new routes from San Jose, Costa Rica: AV SJO-CLO, AV SJO-MGA as well as the resumption of AV SJO-LAX, AV SJO-JFK, AV SJO-MEX and AV SJO-MDE,

Wow, great news for SJO. Maybe Avianca will make a come back for the hub. Is there a press release?

Not a PR perse, but it is in many media news. SJO flights increase is part of a 23 new international routes from BOG, UIO, etc. GUAIAD is on that news too as well SALMCO.
https://worldairlinenews.com/2021/08/12 ... al-routes/

SJO-MGA/MEX/MDE/CLO/LAX/JFK
GUA-MIA/JFK/IAD
SAL-MCO

La Nueva Aerolínea S.A. (known as Wingo Panama) has officially received its AOC from Panama's Civil Aviation Authority (AAC).

https://twitter.com/aacivilpty/status/1 ... 5308433413