The Colombian civil aviation authority (Aerocivil) has approved JetSMART Colombia's proposed business plan, authorising the Indigo Partners-backed low-cost carrier to begin certification ahead of its tentative March 2024 launch.
JetSMART Colombia outlined plans to launch domestic operations on 111 routes, using a fleet of twelve A320-200N inducted over a period of three years. The regulator asked the LCC to submit a more short-term plan. In response, JetSMART proposed to launch with seven A320-200Ns added between March 2024 and August 2025. The aircraft would be used to launch 27 initial routes. The budget carrier's initial network includes the following services:
- eleven routes from its main base at Bogotá, including 7x daily services to Medellín José Maria Córdova, 5x daily to Cartagena Rafael Núñez International, and 4x daily each to Cali, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta;
- three routes from Cartagena, including the high-frequency 5x daily shuttle to Medellín;
- four routes from Medellín;
- two routes from Cali;
- two routes from Barranquilla;
- two routes from San Andrés Island;
- two routes from Cúcuta; and
- one route from Bucaramanga.
The LCC said it would begin its certification immediately despite having three months in which to begin the procedure. Its initial proposed network includes solely Colombian domestic routes as airlines certified in the country gain rights to fly internationally only after a year of operations.
Besides Chilean parent company JetSMART, the group also includes JetSMART Perú and JetSMART Argentina. It applied for the initial route permits in Colombia in November 2022 and subsequently attempted to accelerate its entry into Colombia by acquiring struggling Viva (Colombia). However, its expression of interest in Viva was non-binding. The Colombian LCC suspended operations on February 27, 2023.
JetSMART currently flies to Colombia from Antofagasta (to Cali) and Santiago de Chile (Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín). The Peruvian and Argentinian units do not serve Colombia as yet, the ch-aviation schedules module shows.
