South American carrier Conviasa is set to continue its network expansion and will follow the recent inauguration of flights between Caracas and Port of Spain with a new link from the Venezuelan capital to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. The airline is also looking at new connections to Lima, Quito and Santo Domingo but has not yet announced its schedules or proposed launch date for these flights.

The new six times weekly Caracas – Guayaquil link will begin on August 15 and will be operated using a Boeing 737-200. The route is already served by LAN Airlines and Santa Barbara Airlines but each carrier only offers a weekly service using 767 variants. An estimated 37,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two cities in the past year, a figure that has more than doubled in the past 12 months. However, more than a third of these passengers currently connect via other hubs such as Bogota, Panama City and Lima, a market that could easily be attracted to the more frequent service being offered by Conviasa.

Alongside the new route, Conviasa is also increasing flights between Caracas and Bogota, adding a second daily rotation. The airline has just a three per cent of the estimated 157,000 O&D passengers that travelled on the route in the past year, with the market dominated by Avianca (21 flights per week) and Copa Airlines (13 flights per week). It plans to use a mix of Boeing 737-200s and Bombardier CRJ200s on its flights.

Schedule:

Caracas – Bogota
V05100 CCS0730 – 0830BOG 732 x6
V05102 CCS2020 – 2120BOG CRJ x6
V05101 BOG1030 – 1230CCS 732 x6
V05103 BOG2220 – 0020+1CCS CRJ x6

Caracas – Guayaquil
V05200 CCS1830 – 2040GYE 732 x6
V05201 GYE0730 – 1040CCS 732 x7