Q COSTA RICA – The low-cost airline Wingo that began operations in Costa Rica last month announced the cancellation of its San José – Guatemala, reports La Nación.
According to Wingo, its low-cost flights to that destination do not have enough market to maintain operations.
“We take this opportunity to inform that from January 10, 2017, Wingo will stop operating the San José – Guatemala route because the behavior of this market and demand tends more towards the legacy carrier,” the company said in a statement.
Wingo, an airline belonging to Copa Holdings, began operations on December 1 with flights to Panama and Guatemala.
The decision does not affect the airline’s operations to Panama, nor will it involve layoffs.
“We will not cancel the flight to Panama, a route in which we have been very well received,” explained Marcela Muñoz, communications manager at Wingo.
Passengers who purchased tickets for dates after January 10 will be relocated on Copa Airlines flights.
Since the arrival to Costa Rica of low-cost airlines such as Wingo, Volaris and Veca, major airlines like Avianca and Copa have drastically slashed their prices through promotions.
For example, Avianca is offering, from the San Jose airport, return flights to Guatemala from US$89; Panama and Managua (Nicaragua) from US$119; to Peru: Lima from US$189 and Quito from US$199; and Cartagena (Colombia) from US$299.
These prices are more than half of the regular flights traditionally charged by Avianca and Copa for these destinations.
Travelers can still fly to Guatemala at low-cost with Volaris.
On Tuesday, Volaris added El Salvador to its destinations.
