United Kingdom and Portugal in June and July will join the list of countries to be connected to Bogota, Colombia by direct flights, local media reported Monday.
With Avianca about to land its first flight at Heathrow Airport in London, marking the age of direct flights from Bogota to the United Kingdom as well as to Lisbon, Portugal – meaning that there are now direct flights from Bogota to five major European countries.
MORE: Growing business opportunities between UK and Colombia
Although flights to Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris have been available for a while, with the lack of direct flights between Bogota and London, those wishing to make the trip must go either via the United States or Madrid – a costly and inefficient route. Therefore, there was growing excitement when Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nick Clegg, told El Tiempo newspaper that “as of June there will be direct flights between the two countries.” The British official went on to explain that the “plan is to start with four flights a week, with the potential to increase it to seven.”
Portuguese airliner TAP will also, as of July 1, have direct flights between Lisbon and Bogota. According to German Santamaria, Colombia’s ambassador in Portugal, the creation of the new route is “the realization of an idea we have been working on for some time.”
The new direct flights are as a result of a growing trade between Colombia and both the United Kingdom and Portugal such as the 2011 investment of US $240 million by the United Kingdom into Colombian railways.
Sources
- Colombia tendrá conexión aérea con cinco de las economías más importantes de Europa (Pulzo)
- Colombia tendrá conexión con cinco países europeos (Portafolio)
- ‘Para el 2020, esperamos triplicar intercambio comercial con Colombia’ (El Tiempo)
- TAP – Nuevas Rutas (Camara Luso-Colombiana)
