CNH Tours has been trying to get the final word on the increases
in flight costs from continental Ecuador to Galapagos over the past
few weeks. On December 16th, the government
of Ecuador suddenly announced that it would stop subsidizing fuel
costs for air traffic as of January 1st, 2012 - quite a
short notice! In the intervening days, there was plenty of
confusion as to what that would mean for actual ticket costs, and
if those who had already payed these in advance would be
exempted.
As far as we know, prices will increase by the amounts listed
below. For TAME and Aerogal, the price increase was
described in their respective websites. LAN only posts the
current prices, which are about $60-$70 higher than what they were
in 2011. We don't know why the prices are slightly
different… one would expect that the removal of the subsidy would
have the same effect on price increases - but we'll leave that one
for the airlines to reveal.
Travelers having already paid for a 2012 cruise in full may or
may not be required to pay the extra cost. Most likely they
will, as this is a significant increase and is a lot to swallow for
travel agents. We recommend simply that you be prepared
to pay the difference when asked to do so.
Currently the new 2012 return air fare to Galapagos from Quito
(adult) is: $538 and from Guayaquil: $428, as
advertised on the LAN website. Unless you are traveling
independently to Galapagos, you will likely not have much choice in
airlines, as the ship owners typically have standing reservations
on specific planes for their clients.
|
Route
|
Fuel Surcharge (in US
Dollars) for each way, by airline
|
|
|
LAN
|
TAME
|
AEROGAL
|
|
Guayaquil-Galapagos
|
Apx. 60
|
70
|
50
|
|
Quito-Galapagos
|
Apx. 70
|
70
|
50
|
