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Aires now flies to New York

By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director

Monday, May 03, 2010

Budget airline Aires continues to expand its routes.

The Colombian company recently announced that on June 24th, it will begin to operate three weekly flights between Bogota and New York´s JFK International Airport.

Tickets are already being sold on the airline´s website, with roundtrips starting at $198.

Aires also said it will start flying from Bucaramanga, Cartagena and Pereira to Fort Lauderdale on June 15th. 

The airline currently sells tickets for as little as $40 for a half hour national flight such as Bogota to Medellin or $70 for a one hour flight of Cartagena to Bogota.

Over the past year Aires has combined low fares with aggressive internet marketing campaigns that have significantly increased its sales.

Aires President Francisco Mendez, recently told El Tiempo that sales for the first quarter of 2010 were 215% greater than sales during the first three months of 2009. 

The airline´s low cost model has helped to bring down the cost of flying within Colombia according to industry experts and Mendez says that many of his airline´s potential customers are people who were used to taking long bus rides between cities. 

“Thirty four percent of our passengers” he said “are people who had never been on an airplane before.”