The Government has announced new low-cost domestic and international air routes

The government has announced that low-cost airlines will add new air routes and thus strengthens its policy of “Open skies“embodied both in the Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) signed by the president Javier Milei as in the project Omnibus law.

Flybondiin addition to Mar del Plata, it promised to expand the connectivity offer to Brazil; JetSmart it will connect Buenos Aires with Concepción, in southern Chile; Paranair will travel from the capital of Paraguay to Córdoba; and the Brazilian Objective will offer tickets from Buenos Aires to Bogotá in the coming months.

“With the open skies policy promoted by the Ministry of Infrastructure, led by Guillermo Ferraro, more and more airlines intend to operate new routes in the country, with affordable prices and favoring competition”, reads the official press release from the Ministry of Infrastructure. .

“The company Flybondi has already started connecting Mar del Plata with the city of Buenos Aires, carrying out the inaugural flight with an occupancy of 90% of the seats and representing the first low-cost airline to fly to that destination. It has frequencies on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and leaves from the Aeroparque. This is the 18th national connectivity offer developed by the airline”, underlined the Government.

“Furthermore, Flybondi expects, in the short term, to operate new air routes which continue to improve new destinations to expand the connectivity offer between Argentina and Brazil”, They underlined, without mentioning Aerolíneas Argentinas, that it continues to belong to the state.

“In the framework of the initiative for the democratization of the skies promoted by President Javier Milei and with the Ministry of Infrastructure in charge of its implementation, the company JetSmart will connect Buenos Aires with Concepción (southern Chile) without passing through Santiago starting from March. This air route adds to the two services that the company offers between Chile and Argentina, in this case connecting the city of Santiago with Buenos Aires and Mendoza”, published the Government.

“Another company adhering to the open skies policy is Paranair which has already announced a new international route connects Asunción with the city of Córdoba, starting March 6. There will be three flights a week, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday”, they say on Infrastructure.

“Finally, the company OBJECTIVE will also launch an international route, in this case from April 1st and will have direct flights between Ezeiza and BogotáColombia”, they add.

On the other hand, they point out that the “open skies policy” aims to “achieve greater competition in the market, reach new low-cost air routes and promote a wide range of flights with affordable prices for passengers”.

In turn, this week Aerolíneas Aerolíneas announced that it had recovered the route from Resistencia (Chaco) to Puerto Iguazú (Misiones), but it was not specified in the statement which only mentions private companies.

A record summer is expected for domestic flights

Despite devaluation and inflation, this summer the number of seats available is a record, with just under 100 planes for domestic and regional flights alone, distributed across just three companies: Aerolíneas Argentinas, Flybondi and JetSmart.

At the end of the year, the airline had a fleet of 84 aircraft, of which 11 were for long-haul international flights (USA and Europe), while the remaining 73 were for domestic flights (Embraer 190 and Boeing 737/700 and 800). or for both domestic and regional flights (Boeing 737 MAX).

While the American “low cost” capitals Flybondi and JetSmart have 15 Boeing 737-700 and 800 and 8 Airbus A320s respectively.

It is the first time that the seat offering for the local commercial airline market amounts to almost a hundred large aircraft, for a total of more than 15,000 seats.

Although LATAM Argentina has not been present since 2020, when it closed its operations in the country and withdrew its 13 locally registered Airbus A320 aircraft, this gap has been filled with the expansion of the US capital’s two “low-cost” aircraft .

Today Aerolíneas continues to lead the local market with around two thirds, followed by Flybondi (21%) and JetSmart (14%). But new actors appear and there is expectation from both the DNU project and the Omnibus Law project.