Agromatch Generates $6 Million in Business Potential

Agromatch, Expo Agrofuturo’s business matchmaking platform, brought together 251 exhibitors and 60 buyers from countries including Argentina, Aruba, Colombia, Curacao, Ecuador, Slovenia, the United States, Guatemala, Panama, and Venezuela. The platform facilitated 524 meetings among participants, with reported business expectations totaling approximately $6.16 million. This year, exhibitors included 94 representatives from Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture, underscoring the event’s focus on small and medium-sized producers.

Expo Agrofuturo’s 18th edition is scheduled to be held in Medellín from September 10 to 12, 2025.

Broad Regional and International Participation

Expo Agrofuturo’s exhibitors showcased a variety of products and services ranging from crop varieties, fertilizers, and machinery to transportation and logistical solutions. Representatives from Colombia’s diverse regions, including  and Cundinamarca, displayed products highlighting the country’s agricultural diversity.

International representation included notable participation from Chile, which showcased its agricultural export strength and expertise in fruit and vegetable production, a sector that generates significant revenue as the country’s leading non-copper export category. According to ProChile, Chile’s agricultural exports span 970 products, reaching over 170 destinations, with the United States, China, and Japan as primary markets. Poland and other countries, including China, Argentina, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Peru, and Uruguay, also participated, reflecting ongoing interest in accessing Colombian agricultural markets.

Casanare: Featured Region

Casanare participated as the featured region this year, bringing 20 exhibitors focused on the region’s food processing innovations. “We aim to promote sustainable development in the region through initiatives in cacao, coffee, and other agricultural transformations,” stated Casanare Governor César Ortiz Zorro. Exhibits from the region included automated fertigation systems powered by wind and solar energy, hybrid water extraction technologies, and a range of tropical fruit-based snacks.

Technology and Knowledge Exchange Through FIXA and Agrotalks

The event’s technology focus was highlighted through the display of agricultural drones, advanced machinery, and applications designed to streamline farm management. According to Agrilink co-founder Ricardo Jaramillo, digital tools and artificial intelligence are playing an increasing role in aiding farmers with planting schedules and productivity decisions.

Agrotalks, Expo Agrofuturo’s educational component, provided 1,900 attendees with insights from more than 60 speakers on topics such as sustainability, climate change, biotechnology, soil care, and the role of technology in agriculture. Agrotalks hosted sessions at three different venues within Corferias, with significant contributions from exhibitors, including representatives from Colombia’s rural development-focused Utopía Project.

Additionally, the Forum for Innovation in Agrofuturo (FIXA) hosted 505 attendees and presented discussions on livestock and agriculture, featuring international representatives who examined global agricultural advancements and challenges.

Exhibitor Feedback on Expo Agrofuturo 2024

Several exhibitors shared positive feedback on their experience at the event. Andrés Ramírez of BJ Agriculture highlighted a 200% growth in sales compared to previous years, noting the presence of a well-targeted and informed audience. Miguel Ángel Chávez of Cimecol S.A.S. and Adriana Afanador, manager of Proplantas S.A., also commented on the event’s business-oriented atmosphere, reporting positive sales outcomes and increased interest in Colombian agribusiness.

Expo Agrofuturo’s 18th edition is scheduled to be held in Medellín from September 10 to 12, 2025, continuing its role as a hub for agricultural innovation and business development in the region.

Expo Agrofuturo’s 18th edition is scheduled to be held in Medellín from September 10 to 12, 2025 (photo: Corferias).

Photos courtesy Corferias

The ship carried more than 1,000 passengers, including crew, and arrived to Santa Marta from Aruba around 12:30 in the afternoon. The 15-day cruise initially departed from Miami on February 16 and continued on to Cartagena after its stay in Santa Marta.

The first-ever occurrence was praised by Germán Umaña Mendoza, Colombian minister of commerce, industry and tourism, in a statement as “confidence from the cruise lines that arrive at our ports and in particular of this company.”

Domingo Chinea, president of the Regional Port Society of Santa Marta, also celebrated what this means for the city.

“We are pleased to welcome a cruise ship that will experience the city during the day and night, which is positive for the port and for Santa Marta, both nationally and internationally, and confirms the need to work together to have a specialized cruise terminal,” he said in an annoucement. “So far in 2024, we have received seven cruise ships with more than 3,000 cruise passengers, contributing significantly to the economy of the city, the department and the progress of the country.”

According to business promotion agency ProColombia, it helped pave the way for Santa Martas stops by cruise ships operated by Explora Journeys, which is part of the MSC Group, starting in October 2022 during meetings at the 28th Annual Conference of the Florida & Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA).

Explora I cruise ship that traveled to Santa Marta. (Photo: Foto Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Santa Marta)

Of the roughly 65,000 seats being added, some 7,500, across 40 flights, will be headed to San Andrés, a Colombian island near the coast of Nicaragua that continues to be one of the most-in-demand getaway hotspots.

While seven of the nine affected routes are between domestic locations, there will also be 26 extra flights to Aruba from both Bogotá and Medellín, the nation’s two largest cities. This comes is in addition to the launch of Wingo’s new Cali-to-Aruba route that will begin flying in July.

“We’re increasing our operation in this mid-year holiday high season so that Colombians don’t have to give up their travel plans because of a shortage of low-cost route options,” said Jorge Jiménez, commercial and planning director at Wingo. “These 350 flights represent more pricing possibilities for thousands of travelers, as well as a new boost for the national tourism chain.”

Arajet now connects through two weekly frequencies on Tuesdays and Saturdays to Cancun (CUN), Guatemala (GUA) and San Salvador (SAL) with Aruba (AUA), Curaçao (CUR), St. Maarten (SXM), Kingston (KIN), Cartagena (CRT). These add to connectivity with Barranquilla (BAQ), Cali (CLO), Santiago, Dominican Republic (STI), Mexico City Felipe Angeles International (NLU), San José, Costa Rica (SJO), Quito (UIO), and Guayaquíl (GYE) Ecuador.

With regards to the Jamaican capital, the new routes add additional connectivity between the Caribbean Island and destinations like México City, Cancun, El Salvador, Guatemala, St. Maarten, and Colombia. Previously, expensive and distant connections through Panamá or Miami were usually required.

“What we promised is already a reality today:  Arajet offers connections and brings 9 countries of our network of 11 destinations with low fares so that more people can fly for the first time, visit friends and family, or go sightseeing in our region. Today an Arajet passenger who is in Mexico City, can dine in Medellín and have lunch in the colonial zone of Santo Domingo, generating business and  tourism opportunities  in our country  and contributing with its economic spillover to the development of the country,” said Arajet CEO and founder Victor Pacheco (above photo).

Cleared for approach to the United States

“Very soon we will announce new routes to South America and the United States, since the Dominican state signed the open skies treaty with that country, and  we will receive five new aircraft, which we will name, through interaction with our customers on social networks, with the names of five new protected areas of the Dominican Republic, to  carry our message of respect and conservation of the environment through the skies of the Americas,” said Pacheco.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, PriceSmart operates 50 US-style warehouse clubs in 12 countries and one US territory (9 in Colombia, 8 in Costa Rica; 7 in Panama; 5 each in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala, 4 in Trinidad; 3 in Honduras; two each in El Salvador, Jamaica and Nicaragua; and one each in Aruba, Barbados, and the United States Virgin Islands). The company also has additional warehouse clubs under construction in San Miguel, El Salvador and Medellín, Colombia.

The Dominican Republic has a very strong reputation as a tourist destination, but now, a group of entrepreneurs hope the country can become both a hub for travel in the way that Copa has made Panamá a connection point, and home for a competitive low-cost airline with Caribbean flavor. Finance Colombia’s executive editor Loren Moss was able to speak to Victor Pacheco Mendez, the CEO and co-founder of Santo Domingo based Arajet. The low cost airline startup is already running routes between the Dominican Republic and regional destinations throughout Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, México, Central America, even island destinations such as Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten and Jamaica.

Finance Colombia: I remember years ago there used to be Dominicana de Aviación but then for a very long time there has been no flag carrier in the Dominican Republic. The founder of VIVA—one of the co-founders, William Shaw was in the region, he was working on something but then he left to go and do other things; why has it been such a challenge to get an airline launched to cover the Caribbean and to be based out of the Dominican Republic?

Victor Pacheco Mendez: Well, I think that if you, if you research the failures within the whole Caribbean, you find that the list is huge, so there is a reason for that and a lot of it has to do with, most of the carriers that have tried to start in the region have been mainly opportunistic carriers that find some ethnic roots or somebody with some money that thinks that they can do some type of operation, but this is the first time that somebody really tries the ULCC (Ultra Low Cost Carrier) business model in the Caribbean.

Arajet CEO and founder, Victor Pacheco Mendez

So, I think that the first thing was figuring out what was the right model and once we did that—and William was one of my seed investors so, William was with us, I hired him in the beginning. At that time, we were called Flycana. A good friend of mine, William. But eventually his dad was falling ill, he was living in Mexico and he got the opportunity to go to Interjet and basically, of course he continues to be a shareholder in Arajet, but he left to do that.

And it took us out a long time, to get Arajet done because it was about putting together the right pieces; it was about convincing the government on changing regulations, to legislate on behalf of the commercial aviation space, it was about being able to compare the DR fiscally to other hubs and be able to convince the government that we have to able to have to have the corporate environment to be equal to other jurisdictions so that a local carrier could compete within the same, let’s say, environment, and that wasn’t the case when we started the journey so, we had to advocate and we continue to do so, we still have some what we called barriers that we are working [on] strongly with the government.

I think, if you see the newspapers of two or three days ago the [Dominican Republic] president said that he is sending from his office legislation that will make the DR (Dominican Republic) more competitive from a fiscal point of view. So, it’s been just a very difficult ride, just with the government piece alone has been very challenging and then besides that of course, we have assembled a team of experts that have built ULCC carriers in other continents, in other regions. In Latin América, for example, our COO is Garret Malone, who was the COO of Viva when Viva started in Colombia, eight years he was the COO of Sky Chile, so having Garret as COO tremendous experience, a veteran, it’s a great thing, he’s a great team member to have and then it was about finding the right capital provider.

We sold the business plan since 2017, 2018. We almost got funded in 2019 and then in 2019, we missed the boat, which is now a very good thing that we did, because then COVID came along. That would have been death! And then, in 2021 once the scare of COVID was leaving we went back to the institutional markets to sell our business plan again and we found a lot of interest. It was incredible, we were almost running an RFP to see who our capital provider was going to be and the main choice was not about valuation, for us the main choice was about who’s the right partner, who do we think as a firm, will support us and will believe in our vision of what we believe we can achieve with Arajet and about chemistry, you know

We ended up selecting Bain Capital and Griffin Asset Management just because we felt that with this guys were a good fit for us and now, I can confirm that having been working with them a little bit more than a year, that these are great partners to have, they, you know really believe in the vision that Arajet has.

Finance Colombia: Now, being based out of the Dominican Republic it’s interesting because for a long time the Dominican Republic has been an attractive tourist destination, but you have you already have some competition. For example, Viva flies between Medellín and Punta Cana, Wingo flies to Santo Domingo, if you look in other countries, American Airlines has historically jealously guarded its Caribbean routes and been very aggressive to try to battle competition when it comes between let’s say Miami and the Dominican Republic, or Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, which has always been a popular route. How would you stay profitable or reach profit and then defend your market and grow your route network against such entrenched competitors?

Victor Pacheco Mendez: Look, Loren, we’re not inventing the wheel. I think that we’re applying the game book or the playbook that other ULCCs have used before. If you look at our 18 routes that are now on sale at https://www.arajet.com/  we only have direct competition in three routes, meaning there are 15 uncontested routes. This [strategy allows us] to mature and give you that oxygen that you need. So, it’s about serving brand new routes and about a mix…about some competition but when we finish creating our network of 54 routes, we will only have direct competition in about 25 of them, at that point.

So, it’s about when do you launch routes where you compete and how you grow brand new, existing routes and you have to try to balance out that. But the good news, and what you can potentially say about us that we will not compete with one carrier for more than six percent of our entire network

Finance Colombia: Now, I look at your route network. You are covering in the Caribbean Kingston, (Jamaica) some of the small islands like Aruba, Curacao, Saint Martin. What about destinations like the US market or Puerto Rico which is “kind of-sort of” the US market but certainly with Puerto Rico’s close ties to the Dominican Republic; What are your plans there? Do you have plans to expand outside the Latin American countries?

Because it looks like you’re already very mature and well along the way as you go, and I would think that also Santo Domingo could be a good kind of a transit point, if look at it. I am not telling you what your strategy should be, but I’m kind of asking the question: If you look at what Copa has done by making Panamá a connector between South America and North America, I always wondered, let’s say if I was flying from the US through a Caribbean destination maybe to a destination in South America, is that all viable? Do you have that in your plans?

Victor Pacheco Mendez: Without a doubt. The reason why we will connect 54 routes from Santo Domingo is because Santo Domingo will be a hub where we will be transferring passengers. So, if you look at what we have done, imagine now when we go north, we are going to fly to 17 destinations in North America that includes Puerto Rico. when we go north, we are not only taking the DR up north now, we managed to get a footprint in South America and Central America and the Caribbean. So, when we go north, it gives us some leverage because in the US you do have more of a competitive environment.

So, you can’t get away with operating, you know, 80% of your routes brand new, you are going to have more competition. So, that’s why people ask us: “how come you don’t fly into the US?” Well, we will fly to the US. We will fly to 17 points into the US but we needed to get a base down South into Central America and the Caribbean so that when we do fly into the north, we have the possibility to offer connections.

Finance Colombia: That’s smart. I think that if you look at the airline that Mr. Shaw started, they went international, went into Panama a bit early in their life, and had to retrench and pulled back out. But when they got stronger, then they went into US and now they have routes into Miami and Orlando and, I know that they have publicly said that they have some other ones in the works going into South America…Brazil, Argentina now.

So tell me, you mentioned some of the institutional investors, tell me about maybe a little bit about your history and the management what’s your background, I would imagine that you have been in the airline industry?

Victor Pacheco Mendez: Yeah, I started initially—it was the first airline in the Dominican Republic to ever operate new generation equipment. I initially started with an (Airbus) A320 chartering out of the Dominican Republic. The more confidence I got, the more I learned. That’s how I got the idea of changing to a ULCC model, but Arajet exists on top of that. Arajet is a reformatting of that charter that was called Dominican Wings.

Before the airline activities, I was in commercial banking, financial services, business development, real estate development, but I come from a family…my grandfather is an entrepreneur by the name of Victor Mendez Capellán. All of his businesses where focused on the diaspora.

So, in the sixties, he was the first IATA travel agent in the country, and he was responsible for sending a lot of Dominicans to work in the free zones in New York when we were living through a depression in the DR, so thousands and thousands of families, he managed to help them finance their trips to go work there and eventually all of the family would join them. So after that, that brought in American Express, so he represented American Express in the DR, and then that success brought him Western Union and he was the first agent ever, when Western Union went International. DR was the pilot and it had to do with his entrepreneurial track record. So, today he is 94, and his company which is now a commercial bank conglomerate, tends to the diaspora and they still exclusively represent Western Union.

Finance Colombia: Remesas Vimenca? I know them well.

Victor Pacheco Mendez: Yeah. That’s my grandfather. That bug inside of me because I worked with him for many years—what else can we do for our people? What else can we do for the diaspora? And an airline was…it wasn’t really about an airline. Initially, it was about how can I lower travel [costs] for our people? And how can we continue growing and supporting them? The only thing was that he thought that my idea was too ambitious, so he didn’t support me with capital.

He supported me with his heart and wished me well, and that is why it took me too long to get this done because you know I’m not a wealthy individual. I had to find partners and I had to raise money. In 2018, I raised my first $2.5 million (USD) in order to get this done and then we capitalized Arajet and with Arajet, we the retail value of the order we did with Boeing with the help of Bain and Griffin was up to the tune of three billion dollars’ worth of aircraft.  I never imagined it was going to be such a big transaction.

You know, now, we are the first airline ever in Latin America to be born with brand new aircraft and I was trying to solve for lower fares for the country, but it was a tremendous amount of factors, when we we met the people from Bain and they saw the vision, they said, ‘you know, we really believe in this but a country without having a carrier, a successful carrier of this scale needs an OEM meaning an aircraft manufacturer to be in the country as strategic partner,’ my business plan was leasing aircraft.

And so they said, ‘look, we really need to sit down with you because we don’t believe in this unless there’s an OEM based in the DR and to do that we need to buy planes from them.’

And so now, Boeing is established in the DR and they accompanied Arajet from the maintenance, technical and flight point of view, which is tremendously helpful and is the first phase of a partnership that will be successful.

Finance Colombia:  Wonderful. I appreciate you spending so much time with us. I cannot think of anything more difficult than to starting an airline, the only thing more difficult is making it successful. So, we are really glad to see you and want to see your continued success.

Headline photo: Arajet approach at Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten (courtesy Arajet)

The US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued further guidance today, saying heavy rainfall is expected across the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), portions of northern Venezuela, and northeast Colombia through Thursday morning, reaching Nicaragua and Costa Rica by Friday. Areas of flash flooding are expected, along with the potential for mudslides.

Winds up to tropical storm force are expected over the ABC Islands this evening, and tropical storm conditions are expected along the northwestern coast of Venezuela and the northeastern coast of Colombia tonight and early tomorrow.

Hurricane conditions are possible within the Hurricane Watch area along the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua by late Friday, with tropical storm conditions possible by Friday afternoon.

Colombia’s archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia, are directly in the path of the current storm. The islands, especially Providencia, were severely damaged by Hurricane Iota, that struck in November of 2020, with Providencia just reopening to tourists this month.

Actions to Take: 

• Avoid travel to Colombia’s northern coast, San Andres, and Providencia until the storm has dissipated.
• Monitor the local news for updates.
• Seek secure shelter.

Image of Hurricane Iota captured on 15 November 2020, by the VIIRS instrument, aboard the joint NASA/NOAA NOAA-20 satellite.

Total revenues for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 increased 11.2% to $975.4 million USD compared to $877.4 million in the comparable period of the prior year. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, net merchandise sales increased 12.6% to $944.0 million from $838.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted net merchandise sales negatively by $8.4 million, or 1.0%, versus the same period in the prior year.

PriceSmart operates 49 warehouse clubs, up from 46 in 2020.

Comparable net merchandise sales for the 46 warehouse clubs that have been open for greater than 13 ½ calendar months increased 9.4% for the 13-week period ended November 28, 2021, compared to the comparable period of the prior year. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $8.5 million or 1.0% versus the same period in the prior year.

“Our team achieved a stellar first quarter, with Net merchandise sales growing by 12.6% and Comparable net merchandise sales growing 9.4% as compared to the same period last year. Our 12-month trailing Membership renewal rate is 89.0% and our membership base has grown to its all-time high,” said CEO Sherry S. Bahrambeygui.

PriceSmart reported operating income during the fiscal first quarter of $46.0 million compared to operating income of $44.5 million in the prior year period. Net income attributable to PriceSmart was $30.5 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 as compared to $27.7 million, or $0.90 per diluted share, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.

“We continue to augment the benefits of our Membership, including our Wellness initiatives in areas of Optical, Pharmacy and most recently, Audiology services. Our investments in technology and our omni-channel initiatives have enabled us to further expand services, membership benefits, and convenience for our members, allowing them to shop safely and enhancing the quality of their shopping experiences. Increasing our analytics capabilities is contributing to more timely and better decision-making in many areas of our business. In particular, the technology-enabled tools we are developing and applying are allowing us to unlock more value from our membership data, one of the key characteristics and differentiators of our business model,” commented Bahrambeygui.

PriceSmart operates 49 warehouse clubs in 12 countries and one U.S. territory (nine in Colombia; eight in Costa Rica; seven in Panama; five in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala; four in Trinidad; three in Honduras; two each in El Salvador and Nicaragua; and one each in Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica and the United States Virgin Islands). In addition, the Company plans to open its 50^th club in Portmore, Jamaica in April 2022.

The Colombian airline’s growth comes in a context of global disruptions for the air travel industry. According to an estimate by Boeing, global air travel will only return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit the industry. Lockdowns, stricter health protocols and mobility restrictions heavily impacted consumer confidence, which has yet to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic.

The numbers illustrate this issue clearly: global air travel demand went down by 58.4% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. In this context, Viva continues to perform as one of the few airlines in the world to achieve positive results this year.

“The authorized routes will offer a new range of possibilities to air transport users to find more alternatives within the market, provide more connection points within and outside the country and ratify the commitment of the national government to support the economic reactivation of the sectors derived from air activity, which already reaches 20 million passengers mobilized and is expected to reach 30 million by the end of 2021,” said Camilo Pabón Almanza, Colombia’s vice-minister of transportation.

The company keeps betting on its low-cost model to expand operations through its hub in Medellín. Starting in November, Viva will increase flights from Medellín to Miami to 14 per week, Medellín to Lima and Medellín to Mexico City, both with one daily flight, Medellín to Cancún with five daily flights, and Medellín to Orlando with three weekly flights. These add to the already existing 32 routes to beach towns such as San Andrés, Cartagena, Barranquilla y Santa Marta.

Colombian civil aviation authority Aerocivil had already approved Viva flights from Bogotá and Medellín to Cordoba and Buenos Aires in Argentina; Santiago de Chile and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, more than doubling Viva’s international reach. Now, the airline has received approval for 65 new international routes, as well as new domestic routes.

“On behalf of the aviation authority, we will continue to be committed to reactivating air transport, allowing connectivity between different parts of our country and the country with the world. With this, we seek to offer more and more alternatives for the benefit of users and the possibility of providing better connectivity opportunities,” said Jair Orlando Fajardo, Aerocivil’s director.

Approved New International Routes

Cali Flights To Cancún & México City

Today, Viva also announced that it is launching international flights between Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, and the Mexican destinations of Cancún and México City beginning March, 2022. These will be Viva’s first international routes to and from Cali’s Alfonso Bonilla Aragon airport in the suburb of Palmira. Viva says that its entry into the market for Cali-México routes should cause an overall reduction in airfares between these destinations of up to 35%. The low-cost carrier also indicated that it expects to carry 100,000 passengers on these new routes in its first 12 months of operations.

Viva President Félix Antelo

Tickets have already gone on sale via Viva’s website, and flights between Cali and Cancún will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays beginning March 22, 2022. Routes between Cali and México City will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays beginning March 23.

“Cali is an essential part of the Viva destination network and our commitment to this city is strong. That’s why we have added to our offering these two new direct international routes to México City and Cancún, expanding connectivity from Cali to two new destinations. Since opening (Cancún & México City routes) in August, they have had an excellent reception from Colombian travelers who now know that with Viva they can travel internationally at super low cost,” stated Félix Antelo, President & CEO of Grupo Viva.

A Plethora Of New Domestic Routes Approved

In addition to the 65 new international routes that Aerocivil approved for Viva, they also approved the following domestic routes. Though these routes have been approved by regulatory authorities, Viva has made no official announcement of any of these new routes nor have they released a schedule. They are currently taking periodic deliveries from Airbus on an order of 50 new A320neo aircraft.

Certain routes are interesting in light of Avianca’s recent tie up with Colombian competitor EasyFly, a domestic airline that specializes in flying to smaller cities. For example, Easyfly had the Bucaramanga Cúcuta route to itself, and now may codeshare with Avianca, as Avianca is releasing its ATR72 turboprop fleet. Now Viva will compete directly on these short-haul routes such as Armenia – Medellín (160 miles) or Bucaramanga – Cúcuta (122 miles). In much of Colombia’s mountainous terrain, road travel can take many hours, making air travel a much more feasible alternative. For example, Medellín to Bogotá is only 257 miles away but can take 10 hours-if there are no traffic jams, mudslides, or accidents along the way. On the other hand, a flight is 40 minutes and usually costs less than ground travel anyway.

Approved New Domestic Routes

Photos: Loren Moss except Felix Antelo, courtesy Viva

Among the routes that Avianca has announced are 13 new direct routes from Cali to: New York, Cancun, Mexico City, San José and Quito; from Medellín to: Aruba, Mexico City, Orlando, San José, Quito and Guayaquil; from Bucaramanga to Miami, and from Bogotá, Avianca will launch a direct flight to Toronto, Canada.

The planned new routes are in addition to Avianca’s recently launched routes: Medellín-Cancún, Medellín-Punta Cana, Miami-San José, San Salvador-Ontario, Cali-Orlando and Pereira-Santa Marta.

The airline says that most expansion will take place in cities other than Bogotá due to the congestion and operational limitations at Colombia’s largest airport. Avianca says that in Bogotá, air traffic control activated ground delay procedures 92 times between June & July, causing significant delays. Nevertheless, Avianca remains committed to its Bogotá operational hub.

“Despite this challenging situation, Avianca has the firm intention of maintaining its competitive position in Bogotá and of working together with authorities and operators to ensure that customers have a quality service,” said the company in a statement.

Avianca is also adding direct flights from Quito, Ecuador to New York, Miami, Cali and Medellín; as well as from Guayaquil to New York, Miami and Medellín. From San José, Costa Rica, Avianca will fly to Managua, Nicarragua, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, Cali and Medellín. From Guatemala City, Avianca is adding flights to Washington, DC, New York, and Miami.

Avianca says that it will have resumed 91% of its direct routes in El Salvador by the end of the year . In addition to the El Salvador-Ontario, California route announced in July, it will now also feature a nonstop flight to Orlando, Florida.

“Launching these 23 new routes shows that we want to continue growing in a sustainable way and that we have the firm intention of continuing to be the airline with the most robust route network in our region. We know that our clients want more destinations and more frequencies. We will continue to adapt our offer to give our clients what they really value: competitive prices, tailored products, the best network and service reliability,” says Manuel Ambriz, Chief Commercial Officer of Avianca.