Courtesy of: The Morning News
During last week’s press conference the introduction of another airline for Aruba was announced. LAN Airlines will begin operating as of December 1st from Bogota, Colombia to Aruba.
This is very positive news especially for the Latin American market. This happens to be an integral part of Aruba’s efforts to diversify the flow of visitors for Aruba, which is giving the desired results with a growth of 26.82% in 2011, followed by 15.04% in 2012 and for this year up to August we have seen an increase of 16.80%.
The introduction of LAN concludes structural efforts of many years of trying to attract this airline to Aruba. Those efforts intensified with the association of LAN with TAM (LATAM). LAN has affiliates in Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador. The LATAM Association is considered one of the largest groups of airlines in the world with respect to connections consisting of 135 destinations in 22 countries. Their cargo department is also very large with 144 destinations in 27 countries. Their fleet consists of 317 aircrafts. The LATAM group has more than 53.000 employees.
LAN will be operating with a frequency of twice weekly, Wednesday and Sunday during the evening hours which will allow visitors to enjoy an entire day on our island before returning to their country. The aircraft will be an Airbus 320 with a seating capacity of 174 seats. Flight schedule will be as follows:
Wednesday:
Bogota – Aruba: departure 22:40 arrival 01:40
Aruba – Bogota departure 02:30 arrival 03:10
Sunday:
Bogota – Aruba departure 22:40 arrival 01:40
Aruba – Bogota departure 02:30 arrival 03:10
They are preparing an intensive marketing campaign where LAN will use all sale channels and agencies to promote this service. There ticket tariffs are expected to be very attractive which will definitely make Aruba a most attractive destination to visit. It will also give our own locals the option to visit different counties in the Latin American region. For those who book flights beginning September 12th to October 10th will receive the introductory fare of $207. To make reservations, visit www.lan.com.
According to Herman Pasman, executive director of LAN Colombia, “we have high expectations of the results of this new route. It will benefit Aruba in view of the number of domestic flights in Colombia which will allow passengers to connect via Bogota to Aruba. What’s more, this will be the only affiliate LAN airline with access to Aruba bringing tourists from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador. This will also contribute to the growth of this route.”
According to Aruba Tourist Authority’s CEO, Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, “the launching of this new airline service is the result of ATA’s tireless work together with all our partners, such as the Ministry of Tourism, the Aruba Airport Authority, AHATA, and, of course the LAN airlines. We are very excited to announce this new airline. This will definitely increase our visitors from Colombia as well as from Brazil and Peru because of the favorable connections for these countries. ATA will be focusing her efforts not only on Colombia but also on Brazil where TAM is very strong offering a range of domestic connections. The potential is great and could reach a growth of 50% in the number of visitors from Colombia for 2014 and 20% for the Brazilian market by 2014.”
Congratulations and thanks to all who worked hard on this for several years and those on Aruba who worked tirelessly to realize this another reality for or island, concluded CEO, Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes.
