Published accounts out of Colombia suggest that the country will sign an Open Skies agreement with the Unites States soon. This is big, as it will help determine exactly what US Airways’ vision is for serving Central and South America.
You’ll recall that when route awards to Colombia were last made available, US Airways proposed a CLT-Bogota flight but the route was not selected by the DOT. Well, with Open Skies, the airline can fly CLT-Bogota if it wants to. The question is whether it will choose to or not.
So does US Airways think there are non-beach destinations that it can serve in Central and South America from CLT, as evidenced by the previous Bogota application? Or did the earlier Bogota proposal come exactly because it was a capacity-restricted market, with higher fares and limited competition? Stay tuned.
