Nicaragua: Air Connectivity Remains in Crisis

Since American Airlines, Aeromexico, United Airlines and Spirit announced that they will delay their return to the country until April, local businessmen have given up hope that air connectivity will improve in the coming weeks.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Six international airlines operate in Nicaragua, but currently only Copa and Avianca are flying. The remaining four have postponed their return and according to their latest announcements, they would return until April.

Due to the outbreak of covid-19 and the restrictions imposed worldwide, the country was cut off during a good part of 2020. In the last months, air transportation has been reestablished, but in a very slow way, a situation that generates uncertainty among businessmen.

Laprensa.com.ni reports that "... the delay in the resumption of airline operations in Nicaragua is due to the measures and protocols taken by the government. The Ortega regime requests airlines to send a list of their passengers with negative PCR test results to the Civil Aeronautics authorities and to the Ministry of Health, and also demands test results from the airline crew, unique in the region. It also demands that the airlines send information on the type of aircraft they use to bring passengers, as if they were charter flights."

According to Lucy Valenti, president of the National Chamber of Tourism of Nicaragua (Canatur), "... before the crisis, three million people moved during Easter Week, most of them national and intra-regional, and to a lesser extent international. This year possibly only a third or maybe less."

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