New Air Connections

Taken of TTC 292

Photo: STELA DI/PIXABAY

Plus Ultra to fly to Caribbean with Polish wholesaler

The Spanish airline has been chosen among others that were bidding for this important contract with Rainbow, one of the main wholesalers in Poland. To comply with the agreement, an Airbus A330-200 plane will be based in the European country throughout this winter, to operate from the airports of Warsaw and Katowice to Isla Margarita, in Venezuela, and Varadero, in Cuba.

The company has scheduled 132 flights during the season within the framework of this contract. Currently, it makes 32 regular weekly flights to Lima, Caracas, Bogotá, Cartagena de Indias and Malabo.

Julio Martínez Sola, president of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas, has highlighted this alliance to reach other destinations in the summer of 2024. “The ACMI/CHARTER business line represents 25% of the company’s income and optimizes our entire fleet and crews.”

Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas operates six aircraft, five A330s and one A340. By 2024, it plans to incorporate two new A330s and comply with its ecological transition plan.

Tulum: new airport to bring tourists to all markets

The tourism sector in Tulum, Mexico, is looking with hope to the inauguration of the Felipe Carrillo Puerto Airport and after a difficult summer, the destination is projecting a happier winter. In this sense, David Ortiz Mena, president of the Tulum Hotel Association, hopes that in the winter season they will recover and reach a more than 85% occupancy rate.

As part of the infrastructure works being carried out in the south of Mexico, the construction of this facility has an investment of 3.2 billion pesos and must be completed in December 2023. According to estimates, in one year it will receive close to 6 million passengers and will carry out 32,000 air operations.

The construction of this airport seeks to relieve the saturation of the Cancun international terminal and join the connections of the Mayan Train, which aims to create a mass transportation network throughout the southern area of Mexico.

Flight prices rise 31.2% in last two years

Mabrian, a leading tourism intelligence company, has analyzed in a new study the global evolution of average flight prices over the last two years. The results take into account monthly average prices from July 1, 2021, when there were still post-pandemic restrictions, until June 1, 2023. The analysis includes flights from up to 157 countries, direct inbound to destinations, one-way flights with taxes and fees included.

The main conclusion is that prices have increased on average by 31% globally in the last 24 months. Conventional airlines’ prices have risen 40%, while low-cost airlines’ have risen 6%.

Northern Europe, Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, along with Asia, are the regions with the greatest increase in average prices.

The strong impact on costs has been transferred to prices, as well as the inevitable effect of inflation. The main factor seems to be the accelerated increase in the price of oil during several periods and the forced change in operations during the pandemic. Other costs have also been affected, such as personnel costs.