Managua-Rome flight connections start in July

Róger Solórzano Canales | Jun 26, 2012

On Wednesday July 11th the inaugural flight of the new connection Rome – La Habana - Managua - Rome will take place as offered by the Italian Blue Panorama Airlines. Thereafter, every week and that same day the flight will take off and according to changing demand there will be service upgrades studied. This was officially announced yesterday, Monday July 25th, during a conference in Managua.

The service is being installed in the country through a partnership between the European airline and the Nicaraguan company Nicaragua Airways, an airline budding with national flag which will begin to offer services through partnerships and then evolve to flights with own means, as explained by its president, Jorge Miranda Jaime. The current idea is to offer a new competitive connection between Europe and Central America, with great potential for tourism, trade and business traveling.

Every Wednesday the flight will do the following route:

• It will depart at 12:15 pm from Leonardo Da Vinci Airport (Fiumicino) in Rome and arrive to Havana, Cuba, at 5:35 pm;
• Then, it will leave this city at 7:35 pm and arrive at the International Airport "Augusto C. Sandino" of Managua at 7:45 pm;
• Finally, it will leave bound to Rome at 8:45 pm on the same Wednesday and arrive at the Italian airport at 4:35 pm on Thursday.

According to Gianni Fiorelli -representative of Blue Panorama- and Jorge Miranda Jaime, this week they’ll make public the official cost of the flight, as they are still defining the best tender on the reality of the country tax and competition price. However, they said, the cost will be very competitive. The flights are going to be conducted with Boeing 767 300 airplanes, with a capacity of 274 passengers (10 in "blue class" and 264 in "economy").

Currently there is an Italian delegation of 22 people in Nicaragua, including representatives of tour operators and media, which are making a familiarization tour in different parts of the country, as Antonio d'Andrei, Italian Ambassador said at the event. They arrived on Friday and on Saturday they visited the Masaya Volcano, then they have already been in Masaya, Catarina, San Juan del Sur, Ometepe Island and San Juan de Nicaragua. They are currently are in Corn Island, and to end the trip they will visit the colonial cities of Granada and León.

This will be a great alternative of inter-connection with which from Rome people will have access to all Europe, and from Managua people will be able to visit all Central America, the Italian ambassador noted. The two companies in alliance will soon begin an advertising campaign in the neighboring Central American countries, to publicize the service.

Blue Panorama operates since 1998 and is currently a leader in leisure travel in its country, Gianni Fiorelli said. It has 12 aircraft of different sizes for short and long flights. Its long Latin American destinations flights are Cuba (which accounts for 70% of its market), Mexico, Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. In Europe they have a low cost line called Blue Express.

Translated by Aída Pichardo