Colombian airliners say they had 27% more passengers in the first eight months of 2010 than in the same period the previous year.
On both domestic and international flights, Colombian airline companies transported a total of 2.7 million people.
The sharp increase in passengers is mostly due to the 37% rise in the number of passengers on domestic flights, Colombian financial paper Portafolio reported Friday. International flights only saw a 9.9% increase in passengers.
A total of 4,002,530 people boarded Colombian airplanes for take international flights in the first eight months of the year, while 8,629,876 people boarded domestic flights in that period.
Colombia’s largest airliner, Avianca, benefited most from the increase in passengers, registering a 38.8% increase in passengers, consolidating a market share of 36.7% for domestic flights and 38.8% for international flights.
Colombia’s second largest airlines Aires, which claims 21.5% of passengers who fly within Colombia, saw its market share increase 130.2% compared to last year.
American Airlines saw a 1.3% drop in passengers on its flights to and from Colombia.