Due to lack of frequencies, Ecuador Eastá perdiendo la oportunidad de tener nuevos vuelos desde España and USA.
El panorama no es el mejor a nivel mundial, pero pese a eso muchas aerolíneas han encontrado oportunidades para iniciar rutas, incluso durante julio cien nuevas rutas se inician in the world, pero ninguna de ellas es hacia Ecuador.
Pese a ser el primer país en abrir fronteras de los que cerraron, haber sido de los primeros en permitir la llegada de viajeros vacunados, no estamos en el mapa de nuevas oportunidades.
¿But whaté happens? Más allá de nuestra economía altamente debilitada por la pandemia y que incluso venía desde antes, hay dos mercados que no se pueden explotar más y que posiblemente serían los más opcionados a crecer en este momento.
Tanto desde España como desde Estados Unidos no podemos tener más vuelos dado que no hay más frequencies available within current bilateral agreements with these nations.
¿Whaté are bilateral agreements?
Before delving deeperás in the problemácurrent ethics, It is important to indicate thaté It is a bilateral agreementáask.
A bilateral agreement or ASA (service agreementéprisoners) It is a document signed by two or moreás states where conditions are determined for the existence of international flights between these territories, indicating aerolídenies, teams, ability, detalles técynical, but above all, The núnumber of frequencies that the companies assigned by the states will be ableán operate as máximo in one or another vía.
Agreement with Spainña
The ASA with Españwas signed on 9 July 2003, in which the following is indicated:
- A limitationóblackjack capacity n (21) weekly frequencies for passenger transport, mail and load, from points in Spainña víto Caribbean Islands, Colombia and Venezuela, to Quito and/or Guayaquil and points más allá in Perú, Bolivia and Chile and vv.
- From Ecuador no airínea is operating towards Spainña.
In this way, Currently the following frequencies are assigned:
- Iberia 11 frequencies
- Air Europa 5 frequencies
- More Ultra 4 frequencies
As we can see, there is only one additional frequency available for some new aerolínea seek to fly towards our countryís.
Días atráWe saw the start of flights by Iberojet to Costa Rica, but at this moment we cannot be considered, más allá that there is a market for a new competitor, there is no optionón.
Nor caníwe love to see the más that important flights for example from Barcelona, a route that will undoubtedly beíIt has been successful given the large Ecuadorian colony in said city, which by adding Guayaquil and Quito places us in the second most important market since El Prat., but there is no más available frequencies.
One frequency left, what máIt is likely that some of the 3 aerolíjust ask for it, máIt's not a new competitor to energizeíto the market, at least until they have más options available.
Agreement with the United States
In the case of this market, which is the main source of tourists to our countryís is aún más crítica la the situationón.
There is not a single frequency available of those agreed upon in the bilateral agreement signed on 26 September 1986 valid until 30 June 2021 which details:
- Máximo of 120 Frequencies per week of combined round-trip flights on scheduled combined routes from the United States of AmericaéRica vía 15 intermediate points to points in Ecuador, y más allá to Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Peace, Santa Cruz, RíJanuary's, São Paulo, and five other points.
- LATAM Ecuador has 9 frequencies assigned to New York.
For this case, The assigned frequencies are distributed as follows:
- American Airlines 42 frequencies
- JetBlue 28 frequencies
- Eastern Airlines 20 frequencies
- Delta Air Lines 14 frequencies
- United Airlines 9 frequencies
- Spirit Airlines 7 frequencies
As there are no frequencies available andán missing many opportunities.
Días atráwe saw how Spirit adó dozens of routes to Latin Americaérica from Miami, no new to Ecuador, although the market isá growing and Spirit is one of these actors.
Spaghettién opportunities like new flights from New York, Newark, Orlando or others to Quito or Ecuador in general cannot be analyzed by the airlines.íclear from what we have said, there is no más frequencies.
Even días atrás Southwest indicó their plans to expand into Suramérica, but at this moment our país will beíbeing left out of this or other plans because there was no más available frequencies.
Prónext steps
It is urgent in this moment of recoveryón, that these bilateral agreements be negotiated by the UndersecretaryíTransport Aéprisoner of the Ministry of Works Púwar, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility and embassies to open the opportunity to new routes that in turn generateán más jobs, commercial exchange, arrival of tourists y más benefits for the país.
