SoAmSky, "Catam Airport" is in fact the military apron of BOG, so in fact it is not a different airport, military planes uses both runways at BOG as any other commercial plane. It is true that in Madrid/Cundinamarca there is an air force base, however I would say from what I have seen that BOG has more military movement than Madrid Air Base.

Juan
SKBO

Today I have found this article in Colombian newspaper "El Tiempo" I will try to translate it (not the whole article)


http://eltiempo.terra.com.co/hist_imp/HISTORICO_IMPRESO/econ_hist/2004-02-16/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_HIST-1511165.html

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Airlines; march hearing will decide new politics
Five Foreign Airlines Want To Land In Colombia

If Universal and Estelar do not accelarate their flying process some of their routes will be re-assign to other operators. Fenix is ready for take off.

This year the air market will heat on not only with the sale of Avianca to a foreign operator but also with the entrance of five foreing airlines that are requesting take off clearance.

Europe is on fashion and europeans companies are the most advanced. Spanish company "Air Madrid" wants the Madrid-Bogota-Cartagena-Madrid route. Air Europa bets to travel Madrid-Cartagena-Madrid.

Another airline that is moving on the process is Aerolineas Argentinas who wants to compite with Avianca on the Bogota-Buenos Aires-Bogota route.

Air Canada is also in the row to land on Colombian airfields they want to take passengers to/from Bogota and Toronto three times in a week.

Finally the requests ends with LanPeru, LanChile's partner, to fly Lima-Bogotá-Caracas and Lima-Quito-Bogota.

These five companies are in the row before the Civil Aeronautic Authority. The main requirement for their processes are the bilteral agreements between the Aeronautic authorities of Colombia and the countries they are from.

In the European case the issue is far advanced, but with Argentina, the agreement will only be reviewed by the end of february. Aerolineas Argentinas asked for 14 frecuencies, right now, Avianca has 6, that means that the number of flights will be encreased and divided by 2.

With Canada there is no agreement and with LanPeru the issue has to be with the use of leased planes with crew.

After having completed the request process at the Civil Aeronautic Authority, the five airlines had to go through a hearing scheduled to take place by the end of march........

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I have not heard about Air Canada's intentions to fly to Colombia, that is new, I do not know if the route is profitable, I really don't think there is not enogh demand, however, if they are asking for it there should be a reason. It is great to see that there is a lot of interest in Colombia, I just hope Avianca will remain. (And also hope that BA starts non-stop flights with B777)

By the way, which plane do you think Air Canada will use on that Bogota-Toronto route?

Greetings from Bogota

Juan
SKBO

Hey Juan.

You'd be surprised at the number of Colombians living in Toronto and Montreal. I knew a lot of Colombians in Montreal in the six months that I lived there, and had many other friends living in Toronto. As a matter of fact, it is easier for Colombians to get residence in Canada than it is in the USA, so the Colombian population is growing in Canada.

I would figure AC using 767s on the route, but as it stated in the article, which by the way I posted in another thread so more people from diff. countries can participate, there has not yet been a bilateral agreement.

KdX  

Hi KdX, yes, I know a lot of Colombians that went to live in Canada too, it surprised me a little beacuse of my own experience trying to fly to Canada; I already had a US Visa (B1/B2) with multiple entries and be in the US many times so when I requested a Canadian Tourism visa I thought that I would get it but wrong, it was denied, and it is not an isolated case, there are a lot of complaints at the Colombian Cancilleria about this matter (the applications fees are extremely expensive and they give you no reasons for the denial) also, I do not think that a lot of Canadians are travelling to Colombia. I would say that it would be better for Air Canada if they decide to code-share in this route.

Juan
SKBO

Juan,

I'm surprised about your experience with Immigration in Canada. I remember I had a friend in Toronto, and she had family in Miami, and I asked her why Toronto and not Miami? And she told me Immigration to get residence papers was much easier, and took less time than in the USA.

Maybe things have changed now?

Otherwise, with tougher Immigration requirements for Colombians in Canada, I could not see how a YYZ-BOG route could be profitable.

KdX