Every assignment starts with an airport, and yours is GYE. The desk holds a consignment that is late, valuable or perishable, finds the first departure that fits, and then looks for a courier who can be at the counter in time. Portoviejo is 2 hours 41 minutes out, which puts you inside the window for most of 16 nonstop destinations.
Open · Ecuador desk · Portoviejo
On Board Courier, Portoviejo
If you are in Portoviejo you are 2 hours 41 minutes from Guayaquil José Joaquín de Olmedo and 16 scheduled nonstop destinations. That is the whole starting qualification. Freelance, per assignment, ticket paid.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inPortoviejo, Manabí
Nearest gateGYE · Guayaquil
Drive to the aircraft190 km · 2 hours 41 minutes
Nonstop from GYE16 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
There is no roster and no shift on the Portoviejo list. An assignment is a single trip: accept the offer, collect, drive 190 km to GYE, board, land, clear, hand over. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of JFK, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real. Then you go home or you wait for a return leg, and the desk books and pays for either.
Getting to the aircraft from Portoviejo
The ground leg from Portoviejo is 190 km to Guayaquil José Joaquín de Olmedo, about 2 hours 41 minutes. Where a second airport is within reach of Portoviejo it is listed too, because the desk will use whichever one has the flight.
190 km is a long ground leg by the standards of this list. At 2 hours 41 minutes the desk treats the drive as part of the assignment, plans it explicitly, and will book you into a hotel by GYE the night before rather than gamble on an early start. Everything out of Portoviejo runs through GYE, because nothing else is within a sensible drive. Its 16 nonstop destinations are the honest limit of what you can be offered here.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GYE | Guayaquil José Joaquín de Olmedo | 190 km | 2 hours 41 minutes | 16 |
Portoviejo is a city of 322,000 people in Manabí, and the clock there runs 9 hours behind the Emirates all year. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Portoviejo may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What GYE reaches without a change
Scheduled reach from Guayaquil José Joaquín de Olmedo: 16 nonstop destinations, 10 countries, 8 operating carriers. Frequencies below are average daily flights from the site’s own route data.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UIO | Quito | Quito Mariscal Sucre | about 17 departures a day | 2 operators: Avianca, LATAM |
| PTY | Tocumen | Tocumen | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: Copa Airlines |
| GPS | Baltra | Baltra Seymour | about 5 departures a day | 2 operators: Avianca, LATAM |
| BOG | Bogotá | Bogotá El Dorado | about 4 departures a day | 1 operator: Avianca |
| JFK | New York | New York John F Kennedy | about 3 departures a day | 3 operators: Avianca, LATAM, JetBlue |
| SCY | San Cristóbal | San Cristóbal | about 3 departures a day | 2 operators: Avianca, LATAM |
| MAD | Madrid | Madrid Adolfo Suárez-Barajas | about one departure a day | 2 operators: Air Europa, Iberia |
| MIA | Miami | Miami | about one departure a day | 2 operators: Avianca, American Airlines |
| FLL | Fort Lauderdale | Fort Lauderdale Hollywood | about one departure a day | 1 operator: JetBlue |
| SCL | Santiago | Santiago Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez | about one departure a day | 1 operator: LATAM |
Counting every airport a courier in Portoviejo can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 16 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
What moves out of Portoviejo
The site holds no public industrial map for GYE, so this section says less rather than guessing. Consignments out of Portoviejo are typically documents, spare parts, samples and small valuables that missed a cut off.
Why a courier in Portoviejo is useful to the desk
Hand carry is a business of catchments, and Portoviejo is inside one. Portoviejo sits inside the catchment of Guayaquil José Joaquín de Olmedo, 190 km out, which means a consignment collected in the city in the morning is airborne the same day rather than the next one.
The connection to Dubai from Portoviejo involves a change of aircraft. From Portoviejo the best single change is New York (JFK), and JFK to DXB is flown by Emirates, about 3 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 21h 13m gate to gate, so an assignment between Portoviejo and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Ecuador list
Show the 11 closest, and how far each is from Portoviejo
Manta33 km away, GYE in 2 hours 43 minutesQuevedo110 km away, GYE in 2 hours 57 minutesGuayaquil141 km away, GYE in 11 minutesSanto Domingo de los Colorados168 km away, UIO in 2 hours 50 minutesLatacunga205 km away, UIO in 1 hour 51 minutesAmbato205 km away, UIO in 2 hours 24 minutesRiobamba210 km away, GYE in 3 hours 9 minutesQuito233 km away, UIO in 43 minutesMachala251 km away, GYE in 2 hours 57 minutesCuenca261 km away, GYE in 3 hours 33 minutesIbarra302 km away, UIO in 1 hour 37 minutes
All 12 Ecuador cities are listed on the Ecuador courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of GYE, between Ecuador and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 2 hours 41 minutes drive to GYE. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach GYE, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Portoviejo list
01How far is Portoviejo from GYE?
2 hours 41 minutes and 190 km on a measured route. Whether that is a comfortable drive depends on the hour, so the offer names the time you should leave Portoviejo rather than only the departure time.
02What can I reach from Portoviejo without a change of aircraft?
GYE serves 16 airports nonstop across 10 countries with 8 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Portoviejo can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 16 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Portoviejo to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Portoviejo the best single change is New York (JFK), and JFK to DXB is flown by Emirates, about 3 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 21h 13m gate to gate, so an assignment between Portoviejo and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The company is Emirati and the coordination happens in Dubai, but couriers live in places like Portoviejo. The Portoviejo list exists because somebody has to be near GYE when a consignment appears in Manabí.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
It is free to apply from Portoviejo and free to be screened. The one charge anywhere in the process is the AED 199 Academy, paid once and refunded on top of your first assignment fee.
06How is my fee agreed?
The desk sends the routing, the timing and the fee for that specific assignment in writing. You accept or decline it. Nothing is deducted or charged without your written agreement.
Apply to fly out of GYE
Put your name down for Portoviejo. There is no cost to apply from Portoviejo, no minimum, and no obligation to accept anything you are offered.
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