With 34 passengers on board, this airline started with its first flight on the Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra triangular route.
July 28, 2021 – 06h00
Jorge Villon Reyes
Without Tame as a carrier on the domestic market due to its liquidation, yesterday, Aeroregional began to fill the space that the public airline left in the Galapagos Islands and began to compete with Latam Ecuador and Avianca to that destination.
With 34 passengers on board, one of the planes with its new tricolor livery, this airline started with its first flight on the Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra triangular route.
This year, Aeroregional was one of the three airlines to whom the National Aviation Council assigned the 16 routes that Tame had in the archipelago. Other frequencies were distributed to Equinoxair and Galapagos Air Ways. This allocation process was objected to by Avianca Ecuador.
The company Servicio Aéreo Regional Regair, with the company name of Aeroregional, was granted five weekly frequencies on the Quito-Guayaquil-Baltra route and two Quito-Guayaquil-San Cristóbal frequencies.
The firm intended to increase the frequencies to Baltra, the island through which the largest number of passengers enter and the destination most desired by airlines due to its traffic.
It will initially operate two weekly frequencies on Mondays and Tuesdays using a Boeing 737-500 aircraft with capacity for 129 passengers and Boeing 737-400 for 145 passengers, according to Quiport, the concessionaire of the capital airport, the airport from which the inaugural flight departed yesterday.
The Civil Aviation Directorate indicated that yesterday’s flight was part of compliance with the certification process to operate its itinerary.
Manuel Rodríguez, president of Aeroregional, pointed out that the company’s strategy is aimed at the Ecuadorian passenger. “In the case of Galapagos, it seeks to attract passengers who must travel to the islands for work purposes, but also settlers, without neglecting the national tourist who can find a new alternative for travel,” he said.
The executive said that in the coming months they will continue to announce the opening of new domestic routes.
Last June, this company received its third aircraft, a B737-400 aircraft that was received in the Ecuadorian capital.
Ramón Miró, president and CEO of Quiport, indicated that the incorporation of this new route contributes to the reactivation of tourism and air transport. “We are sending the message to the world that things are being done well in Ecuador.”
The entry of Aeroregional to Galapagos supposes the weekly expansion of the availability of seats in that market, which is still struggling to recover passenger traffic.
“We have high expectations; if we consider that the space left by Tame, which represented 25% of the market, has not been covered,” said Jorge Rosillo, general manager of the Galapagos Ecological Airport.
The executive expects Aeroregional to increase its flights to seven a week.
“We see a tourist and economic reactivation that, although it is not immediate, it is making great strides,” said Rosillo.
Data from the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism states that during 2020 the entry of tourists fell by 73%, from 271,238 to 75,519.
38,491 tourists came to the islands in the first half of 2021, 30.56% less than in the same period of 2020 when 55,432 arrived. Most of those who have traveled this year have been Ecuadorians.
For Andrés Ordóñez, director of the Galapagos Chamber of Tourism, the economic reactivation in the islands is still gradual. “Although the number of incoming tourists, especially foreigners, increases monthly, we are still far from the 2019 indicators,” he said.
The international promotion has managed to position itself as a safe destination that acts as a magnet to increase international tourism, but indicated that reforms are still required to support entrepreneurs in their recovery, such as a tax exemption, investment incentives and business sustainability.
Read the original coverage from El Universo at https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/economia/aeroregional-entro-a-galapagos-con-parte-de-las-rutas-que-eran-de-tame-y-compite-con-latam-y-avianca-nota/
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