Beginning July 8, residents of the Island will need a visitor visa to travel on the airline to Bogotá
14ymedio, Havana, 6 July 2024 — The controversy between the Colombian airline Wingo and its Cuban users has escalated in recent days after the company announced that from July 8 it will only transport travelers with a visitor visa, that is, whose final destination is Bogotá. Many of its customers on the Island have begun to protest the measure, which prohibits travel to those who were only thinking of transiting in the Colombian capital, and this Friday the demands reached the Colombian Embassy in Havana.
According to the statement published by Wingo on its official website, the request for Cuban travelers to present a visitor visa and their return ticket to the Island – purchased from the company itself – is going into effect based on another announcement made by the Colombian Foreign Ministry on July 4. According to the official document, “in order for a passenger to be considered in transit at Colombian airports, the same air transport contract must include both the journeys of arrival in the national territory and those of departure to the third country.”
In summary, the Government of Colombia requires the transit to be included in the same flight contract; that is, that it be done with the same company.
For its part, Wingo only operates a “point-to-point” flight between Havana and Bogotá, so it cannot check the transit status or be responsible for its travelers when they move to another airline. “It is important to reaffirm that Wingo’s network of routes only offers direct flights, in this case Havana – Bogotá, and does not offer connecting flights, either within its own network, or with other airlines. That said, the airline is not able to verify the validity of connections with other airlines