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Copa Arlines and Wingo operate humanitarian flights to take chilean and brazilian citizens back to their countries
Panama City, April 10, 2020
Copa Airlines and Wingo, subsidiaries of Copa Holdings, S.A., {NYSE: CPA}, continue to join forces to operate three new humanitarian flights today. As part of these operations, 114 Chilean citizens and residents of Chile were carried from Caracas (Venezuela) to Santiago (Chile), and 234 Brazilian citizens and residents of Brazil were carried from many countries in Central America and the Caribbean to Sao Paulo (Brazil). These flights happened, after passengers were affected by the flight restrictions imposed by different governments in the region, to contain the spread of the coronavirus in their territories.
The first humanitarian flight departed from Caracas this morning, through Bogota (Colombia), and landed in Santiago de Chile around 7 p.m. (local time). Meanwhile, the two flights to Sao Paulo, which departed from Bogotá early this morning, each covered two different regions. The first flight made an extensive trip to four Central American countries, while the second one made it through two Caribbean countries. In both cases, Wingo's aircraft boarded Brazilian passengers and landed in Sao Paulo around 1:10 a.m. (local time).
These three humanitarian flights are added to the other 15 flights that Copa Airlines and Wingo have coordinated and operated since March 15, during the COVID-19 crisis that has affected the region and the world, transporting 2,300 passengers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru and Venezuela back to their homes.
“We will continue doing our best to get permission from authorities in different countries, in order to operate other humanitarian flights like these and in addition to our other efforts, bring these passengers back home to their loved ones,” said Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Airlines.
Copa Airlines confirms its commitment to transporting passengers back to their homes and has requested permission to carry out 28 more humanitarian flights, which unfortunately, were not approved due to the travel and operations restrictions that countries have ruled in an effort to control the spread of coronavirus in its territories.
“Once again we put our airplanes at the service of our passengers and we joined efforts with our sister airline, Copa Airlines, to take Chilean and Brazilian travelers back home,” said Carolina Cortizo, Managing Director, Wingo.
Regarding coordination and work with governments, Heilbron commented that “Copa Airlines appreciates the government in Brazil for the initiative, diplomatic arrangements and for all their support, and highlights the commitment of its government to take its citizens, who were in different countries in Central America and the Caribbean, back home. In addition, we appreciate the government in Chile, Venezuela, Colombia and all of the countries involved in the operation of these humanitarian flights.”
As responsible companies, Copa Airlines and Wingo, have implemented all the hygiene recommendations provided by the World Health Organization, as well as those established by national and international authorities for the airlines. In this respect, they have reinforced the protection of the crew that volunteered to carry out these flights, as well as the cleaning of the cabin and all contact points between passengers and the flight crew.
In addition to the coordinated efforts to date by the different governments in the region, Copa Airlines has carried out numerous efforts in the last few weeks to locate passengers who need or are interested in returning to their countries, of which already about a third of the total decided to do so on the aforementioned special flights carried out by the airline. Additionally, the company also made the necessary arrangements to get seats on flights from other airlines and endorse the tickets so that its passengers could travel to their country.
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