Hi,

I know there's some great information on the Hubb on this subject but it appears to become out of date very quickly.

I crossed from Panama to Colombia on one of the tourist yachts 18 months ago and I can only describe my experience as being miserable. Certainly not something I would want to do again unless I absolutely had to.

18 months ago the combined cost of crossing the Darien Gap by yacht was $375pp & $375 for a bike, now the price appears to have topped the $400 each mark, which I thought might be a comparable price for shipping by air so I sent an email to Verinica at LynCargo, Bogota (full contact detail at the bottom of this message) The quote I received was for an eye watering $1,120!. The breakdown was as follows:

MAA Agency Fee USD 35.00
DGA / DGC Dangerous Goods USD 150.00
Flete Rate per position USD 800.00
MCC Due carrier USD 25.00
SCA Security USD 35.00
AWA Due Agent USD 45.00
RPA Re packing USD 30.00
TOTALS USD 1,120.00

So here's my question. Does anyone have any recent experience of shipping by air?

I have seen that the Colombian budget airline Aires offers freight services now:

AIRES - ServiAires

Has anyone made contact with them to know how competitive their prices are? Unfortunately being a budget airline information only appears to be available from contacting a call centre... doesn't sound so reassuring.

Anyway, if you do have any information you can add, or know any agents offering more competitive rates I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again.


VERÓNICA MOSQUERA OVIEDO
GERENTE / MANAGER
LYNCARGO S.A
veronicam@lyncargo.com
info@lyncargo.com.co

PH. (57-1) 742 5850
FX: (57-1) 413 1632
Address: Kra 103 No. 25B-96 2do Piso
Bogotá, Colombia

Just to add to my own thread. I emailed Aires via their freight hub in Pereira and they've responded that they transport very little international freight and that they wouldn't transport a machine with an engine internationally.

GIRAG flew two klr's from Bogota to Colombia for me at the beginning of April for USD 650 per bike.

Contact Nicolas Landinez at
♫
reservas@girag.com

GIRAG was very professional - they knew exactly what they were doing at both ends! Highly recommended.

We flew our 1200 GSA from Panama to Bogota with Girag last year for US 900. Just after that Copa Airlines started freight services again and from what I can remember they were cheaper than Girag.

Thanks to the previous message I made contact with Girag, here is their response:

Dear Graham,

The cost is USD 675.00 per motorcycle (only cash), this cost include:

Customs clearance in BOG
Advice to police
Air freight BOG-PTY
Check DGR (dangerous goods restrictions)
We have wednesday, thursday, friday and saturday flights to Panama City at 04:am

Additional, you should be here at 8:00 am, The address is : Av. ElDorado Nº 116-87 Warehouse # 10,, this is international cargo terminal, in addition the vehicle has to be almost empty with gas.

The docs that we require to the operation are:

-Passport copy.

-Copy of the customs documentation used to enter to Colombia.

-the property card of the vehicle.

- Package list (if its required)

Finally, you should know that the procedure lasts for about 6 hours.

Pls Inform us when are you planning send the motorcycle to Panama.

I hope that all your doubts are solved.

brgds


Nicol

More to add:

I have contacted Copa and they explained that they don't transport motorcycles on the Colombia - Panama route.

Peter (from a previous post) has followed up with some more information on the process with Girag:

Process was dead easy! Made an appointment with Nico via GIRAG's website, showed up the morning of the flight, walked back and forth from Aduana to GIRAG to National Police about a dozen times with GIRAG representatives - rode the bikes into the warehouse and onto the scales to confirm weight - then picked them up in Panama 4 days later!

By the way, the 4 day delay was as a result of the Easter Holidays (i.e. customs closure in Panama) and not due to any delay on GIRAG's part. If not for Easter, we could have picked up the bikes the next day in Panama.

Process in Panama was also easy, but SLOOOOOW...waited in line for Aduana stamps for about 5 hours.