Ecuador to resume local flights on June 1 with limit on frequencies

Ecuador, whose borders have been closed since mid-March, will resume domestic flights on June 1, limiting frequencies, reported on Friday the Minister of Government (Interior), María Paula Romo.

“Passenger flights will start on June 1 and a limit has been set on the percentage of the number of frequencies or flights that can be reactivated,” Romo said at a virtual press conference.

He added that “only 30% of the frequencies” that were normally authorized at the country’s airports will be allowed.

The minister specified that since the state of emergency was declared, airports have maintained their operations for cargo flights.

Transport Minister Gabriel Martínez had anticipated that the resumption of passenger flights will be carried out “under strict biosecurity protocols.”

Romo added that in the remainder of May, interprovincial passenger land transportation will continue to be suspended. Only the road parcel service is authorized.

Ecuador has announced that from June 1 it will also require travelers to present the negative result of a PCR test (nasopharyngeal swab), performed no later than 72 hours before boarding a flight.

For the past nine weeks, the country has kept all its borders closed as a measure to slow the advance of the new coronavirus, which leaves almost 35,828 cases, including 3,056 deaths. The government also reports another 1,892 deaths likely due to the virus.

The government of the president, Lenín Moreno, also decreed a state of emergency, which will last until mid-June, suspended face-to-face work and classes and implemented measures to restrict the movement of vehicles, the 15-hour curfew a day to promote the confinement of the population, which remains in force.

To lighten the confinement, the government implemented a traffic light system to differentiate the danger in the different areas of the country and empowered the mayors of the cities to define the color of the same.

So far, 15 of the 221 cantons in the country have gone from red (greater danger) to yellow, which allows productive activities to resume and reduces the number of hours of the curfew from 15 to 8 hours.

pld / gfe