Thanks to the good people at the U.S. Department of Transportation and their Colombian counterparts, American Airlines was forced in March to loosen its stranglehold on flights between Florida and Bogotá. Under an Open Skies-like agreement reached by the two governments at the end of last year, American was stripped of a set of daily round-trips from Miami.

Those slots were then awarded to “ultra low-cost carrier” Spirit Airlines, which will operate between the much more pleasant Fort Lauderdale airport and El Dorado starting this summer. Glam go-getter JetBlue Airways (seatback TVs, blue corn chips) was also granted permission to fly daily from Orlando. Hopefully these two carriers will usher in a new age of lower fares and better service between the States and Colombia.

Other winners: Delta Air Lines, with a new daily nonstop from New York-JFK to compliment its service from Atlanta, and Continental Airlines, flying daily to Newark and, soon, two dailies to Houston. South Florida can still be accessed via American twice a day to Miami, Chilean-carrier LAN (nice on-board wine and in-flight magazine) with thrice-weekly service; and Colombian flag carrier Avianca, serving both MIA and Fort Lauderdale, as well as JFK and Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of vayenne7