Cheap flights will boost regional economy

The regional economy could get a boost, as it becomes easier to manage business operations in more than one country, thanks to low-cost airlines.

Wingo, a division of Panama-based Copa Airlines, will on December 1 start flights which connect San José with Guatemala and Panama.

In total, Wingo will have 47 flights among 16 cities in South America, Central America and the Caribbean, many of them in Colombia, where the new brand will take over many of the operations of Copa Colombia, using four single-class, 142-seat Boeing 737-700s.

For its part, Volaris Costa Rica will before the end of 2016 start low-cost services, on a route consisting of Guatemala, El Salvador, Managua, San José and Panama.

Volaris Costa Rica is a subsidiary of Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, owner of Volaris, Mexico’s second-biggest airline ,which last year started flights from Guadalajara and Cancun to Guatemala and Costa Rica.

El Salvador-based Veca Airlines since 2014 has offered connections to Guatemala, Managua and San José.

With low-cost options increasingly available, businesses will find it easier to create scale economies through cross-border operations.

Central America for many years had some of the world’s highest-priced airline tickets.