The Spanish company GPA has won a tender from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to evaluate and make proposals for improving the market for air passenger transport in six countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
As reported this Sunday by the regional government of Catalonia (northeast), this Catalan firm will analyze the competitiveness, regulatory quality and operation of this sector in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, after winning the tender for $ 235,000, about 199,700 euros.
The company’s CEO, Jaume Adrover, explained that the six countries share “the feeling that they are losing opportunities in the passenger transport sector as a driving force for tourism development, the attraction of foreign investment and generation of more economic activity “.
The six, he added, “are small states in population but in a strategic geographical area, where the penetration of low-cost companies is generally small, and they need to stimulate growth by fostering competitiveness.”
Part of GPA’s task will be to design a joint roadmap with measures to integrate the different airspaces that will allow them to be more competitive, as well as analyze the current regulatory barriers that make it difficult for new companies to enter.
Adrover noted that “one person, to fly from San Salvador to Managua pays about $ 600-800 for a one-hour flight. This means that the prices for flying between these countries are similar to the cost to go to the United States. “, which in his opinion causes the markets not to facilitate the economic and social growth that is usually associated with aviation.
During the year and a half of the company’s work, they will have to review the management of the airports and, if it is attractive to the companies, promote the most transparent management possible and ensure that the review bodies have the capacity to manage. the sector.
GPA is a consultancy specializing in air transport, founded in 1999 in Barcelona and one of its growth paths is the search for international tenders.
To obtain this tender, GPA had the help of a Catalan government agency specializing in advice on accessing tenders from multilateral organizations such as the IDB or the World Bank.