IATA expressed its concern about the repeated delays that have been registered since May 29 in the operations of El Dorado Airport in Bogotá, which complicate the airlines and do not allow them to comply with their commitments to passengers.
The situation in Colombia brought as a consequence an exponential growth in non-scheduled aviation air operations, which forced Civil Aeronautics to reschedule the itineraries of the regular airlines every day. This situation led to significant flight delays, especially in the local 11:00 am -1:59 pm and 5:00 pm -7:59 pm slots.
This measure is called the Ground Delay Program (GDP) and this, added to the lack of air traffic controllers, has generated until today:
•1,035 delayed flights
•6 flights canceled
• 125,180 users affected
• Delays between 29 to 183 minutes
The punctuality index of the airlines decreased by around 13 points in relation to the indicators of May. The airlines observe with great concern the inability to respect the published schedules for their flights and to provide a punctual and stable operation to their passengers.
For this reason IATA asks the aeronautical authority and the ministry of transport:
- Do not apply the GDP system to regular passenger aviation
- Implement GDP only to non-regular aviation (general aviation and state aviation that does not have status according to aeronautical publications).
- Coordinate the operation of non-regular and state aviation at El Dorado Airport to comply with the stipulated percentages of operations (80% for regular aviation and 20% for general and state aviation).
- Accelerate the vaccination of air traffic controllers and firefighters to increase the operational capacity of El Dorado and the other airports in the country. The companies reaffirm their willingness to make commitments to their passengers, something that today at the El Dorado Airport seems unfeasible, for which the pertinent authorities are requested to work to resolve this situation with great urgency.
