2023 -- Cuenca to initiate international flights.
Certification of international status for Cuenca's
airport is in the works .. and flights to Peru and
Colombia will be the first international routes.
Cuenca flights to and from the USA are not
yet planned, apparently due to a relatively small
customer base for such service.
Upgrades of the airport's facilities are planned
for this year as well.
More details at www.cuencahighlife.com
¨cuenca airport expects international flights in 2023¨
Manta to Panama.
With pandemic fears largely subsided, Manta's
airport has been approved for international
flights this summer.
One of the early routes will debut in June,
between Manta and Panama City, Panama.
Source... www.cuencahighlife.com
Non-stop to the Paisa capital.
The prominent Colombian airline Avianca has
restarted non-stop flights from Quito to Medellin,
three evenings a week.
The one-hour flights, as listed at cheapoair.com,
have a base fare of $207 or slightly higher if flying
in the coming weeks.
cccmedia in Santander, Colombia
Face lift for major Ecuadorian airport.
From Cuenca comes word that the airport
will close for two months for the installation
of new drainage, lighting and asphalt.
El Mercurio reports that local interests
are asking that the work not be conducted
during the high-traffic months of
July and August.
Source... El Mercurio, reprinted in English
at Jeannie's column in CuencaHighlife
@cccmedia I hope Cuenca isn't underwater like a lot of Ecuadorian cities. . . .
@cccmedia Does anyone else have a bad experience flying with Avianca? My husband said he'll never fly with them again. He flew from Washington Dulles to Quito with Avianca and said that the flight attendants were surly even though he is Hispanic and speaks Ecuadorian Spanish, his primary language. He also said the seat he had was very uncomfortable. Service was pitiful to non-existent. He said he had a several hours wait between flights in Bogota at around 3 a.m. !!!!
@Coxhere1...
These are great questions, especially since
Avianca has many Ecuador to Colombia routes.
(1) I have had no significant problems flying
with Avianca and am a member of their miles club.
(2) I do not recall any problems with the
flight attendants and their 'actitudas'.
(3) Seats in coach class on most airlines are
pretty bad these days, so I don't expect much.
Avianca doesn't seem any worse than the
others. Service was acceptable.
(4) IMO, a savvy passenger wants a scheduled
three-hour window if changing planes in
Bogotá. Anything under two hours and you
can barely make your connection. With
three hours, you can make your connection
and even schedule in a meal. That airport
is enormous.
---
Avianca never has enforced the onward-flight
regulation that supposedly requires the
passenger to have a ticket for an ensuing
trip in order to board. LATAM enforced the rule
when I flew Quito to Lima, Peru, a few months ago.
So I will avoid flying on LATAM internationally
from Quito going forward, when possible.
cccmedia
@cccmedia Thanks for a prompt reply to my query. I had flown with United Airlines exclusively and over a relatively long time (Quito to Cincinnati) until I started getting waits between flights in Houston for up to NINE (9) hours! Not anymore. Delta Airlines has better connecting flights via Atlanta than United does via Houston. And by the way, I'm old enough and have a permanent residency visa such that I can get the half price tickets (that doesn't include the taxes and other fees). So I can fly business/first at half price that's just about the same as a full price ticket in economy. It's a nice perk!
I'm pretty late to this discussion.
We flew Avianca from Santiago. Chile to Quito, via Bogota. We booked economy, since it was $1000 for two on just that one way journey. How bad could it be?
Well it was horrible. Absolutely my worst flight in 55 years. Santiago to Bogota was nearly seven hours. We couldn't get seats together. Avianca crams another two rows into the fuselage. None of those seats recline. I was a middle seat, and the distance between my setback and the one in front was about 18 inches. My femurs appear to be about 21". It was excruciating.
No drinks, no water, no snacks. One lavatory for 170 people. I started to freak out from claustrophobia. I started to feel for what submariners must go through.
We are flying Quito to Mendoza next. I am paying for Premium Economy and never using Avianca again.
@Anonymous User . . . .sounds about right!
There has to be water on international flights.
Travelers may have to request it.
cccmedia
@cccmedia But will water be brought to passengers after they've requested it?
In a word, yes.
I would be mighty surprised if any of our members
asked for drinking water during a flight .. and
the flight attendants couldn't deliver.
cccmedia
H2O.
Common sense tells us that an airline would be
in legal trouble if a passenger encountered
serious health issue(s) after flight attendants
failed to comply with his or her request for water
during an in-flight episode.
I personally became dehydrated and cramped up
on two flights in recent times and needed water
or some liquid to stabilize.
After at least one of these flights, I requested and got
gratis wheelchair service in order to transfer to a
connecting flight without over-stressing my body.
cccmedia
@cccmedia, according to my husband, when he flew from Washington Dulles to Quito, with a stop in Bogota, he said service was abysmal and flight attendants were surly and downright awful. So, I don't think the attendants couldn't provide a drink of water but, rather, wouldn't. . . .
Travel options to internationally-famous
resort city in Mexico.
The Mexican airline company Viva Aerobus
is starting up air service between Quito and Cancún,
which has a major international airport in the state
of Quintana Roo, Mexico.
There will be three Quito flights a week to Cancún.
The service begins June 16.
One-way tickets start at just 58 USD, plus fees for
baggage if applicable.
cccmedia in Mexico City
Source...Cuenca's El Mercurio newspaper,
translated and reprinted at www.cuencahighlife.com
Quito to New York service about to resume.
Starting June 1 (2023), Avianca Airlines will resume
direct flights from Quito to the Big Apple, starting
with five flights a week.
A round-trip ticket for UIO-NYC (June 1, returning
June 15) was priced at $ 556 USD.
Source... www.cuencahighlife.com
Tourist tax eliminated.
Ecuador's government has eliminated the tourist tax
a.k.a. Eco Delta tax from international flights.
The tax had added five to ten percent to the cost
of individual tickets.
Tour agencies said the tax had made Ecuador a
less competitive market versus South American
destinations for which the tax was not added.
Source... www.cuencahighlife.com
Cuenca International Airport -- the plan.
An article appearing in Jeanne's Periódico column at
Cuenca HighLife details the planning for Cuenca's airport
to acquire the designation of international airport.
Once that designation is obtained, plans are
for the initial cross border and international flights
to connect Cuenca and two cities in northern Peru, Chiclayo
and Piura, connecting on to Lima.
Other international flights from Cuenca, as currently
envisioned, will go to the capital of Colombia
and to Panama.
Source... www.cuencahighlife.com ... Jeanne's column
is primarily a translation into English of items that have
recently appeared in El Mercurio newspaper of Cuenca.
Anyone ever fly Quito to Bogota on Wingo? I will probably do a "Pasto option" of my own making to Armenia, but I thought i would ask. (Delete the comment if the Spanish is upsetting which is incidental to the $ figures)
For the "premium" flight which shows a cost of $199, the break down is $98.50 for the flight and then taxes and fees as follows:
Panama and Peru routes begin.
Air service on a Cuenca-Quito-Panama route
has begun flying two days a week,
Monday and Friday, via Autoregional.
Four flights, morning and evening in
both directions, are serving this route.
The same airline will offer
Cuenca-Quito-Lima, Peru routes
starting August 10.
Source... www.cuencahighlife.com
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