“From Curaçao, InselAir will offer a comfortable and shorter flight to the metropolitan city,”  said Jurgen Lippinkhof, chief commercial officer of InselAir. “Barranquilla, the fourth-largest city of Colombia, has a lot to offer, as it is known as the main industrial and cultural center of this region.”

While Barranquilla doesn’t have the tourism draw of the nearby cites of Cartagena or Santa Marta on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it is conveniently located about halfway in between the two locations. New hotel properties have also been popping up in recent years to increase the appeal of Barranquilla, a port city of more than two million that is an economic workhorse due to its location at the delta of the Magdalena River.

In 2015, Hilton added a $210 million USD Garden Inn in Barranquilla and Starwood built a luxury Sheraton Four Points property in the city. “Colombia received a record number of tourists over the last year, thanks to macroeconomic factors that have enabled it to become one of the top-performing markets in Latin America,” said Jorge Giannattasio, Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ Latin American head when introducing the new hotel. “We are thrilled about our growth in this dynamic travel market.”

In addition to using a new plane, InselAir will be changing the route’s schedule. Instead of offering flights on Tuesdays and Fridays, the carrier will now run the route on a Monday and Thursday schedule.

InselAir introduced its Barranquilla route in 2014. It also flies to Medellín and Cali in Colombia and maintains an interline agreement with the Bogotá-based Avianca, the largest airline in the country and one of Latin America’s leading carriers.

InselAir’s Barranquilla-to-Curaco New Schedule

Curacao >> Barranquilla
Monday and Thursday
Departure: 8:30 pm
Arrival: 8:50 pm

Barranquilla >> Curacao
Tuesday and Friday
Departure: 6:10 am
Arrival: 8:30 am

(all times are local)

Photo: An InselAir jet takes off at Miami International Airport (Credit: Maarten Visser)