VivaColombia (Medellín José Maria Córdova) has said it is mulling launching services to Colón Enrique Adolfo Jimenez in Panama as a replacement for its terminated services out of Bogotá and Medellín José Maria Córdova to Balboa (Panamá Pacifico) but the final decision would depend on a favourable agreement with the airport, Flightglobal has reported.
The Colombian LCC has pulled out from Balboa after the airport more than doubled its airport charges from USD15 per passenger three years ago to USD34 now. This, combined with decreasing fares, has made the routes economically unviable. The carrier had been operating 4x weekly to the airport from each of Bogotá and Medellin.
VivaAirColombia has previously negotiated with Colón airport but failed to reach an agreement. It has ruled out serving Panamá City Tocumen International, the country's main gateway, due to the scarcity of slots. It has, however, also engaged in negotiations with Rio Hato, an airport located nearly 100 kilometres away from the capital of Panama.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the market between Colombia and Panama is dominated by Copa Airlines, which operates a total of eight routes out of Tocumen to Colombia and has a 76.3% market share by capacity.
Following the withdrawal of VivaAirColombia, Balboa sees no scheduled services. Similarly, Colón is currently also without any scheduled traffic.
