The Latin American market reported significant news during September, with the focus mainly on the upcoming summer season in that part of the continent.
In addition to having a lot of news about routes, airlines continued adding aircraft to their fleets. This is the case of Aerolineas Argentinas, Flybondi and LATAM.
Sadly, a main point of information in this month’s update is the closure of Equair. As a result of high costs and the impossibility of making a profit with the business plan, the airline ceased operations without prior notice.
Aerolineas Argentinas
Between October 3rd and 5th, Aerolineas Argentinas started several seasonal routes in Argentina for the beginning of the high season. The cities involved were El Calafate, Mar del Plata, Rosario, Trelew, Tucuman and Ushuaia:
October 3rd
October 4th
- Bariloche (BRC) – El Calafate (FTE)
- Trelew (REL) – El Calafate (FTE)
- Tucuman (TUC) – Mar del Plata (MDQ)
October 5th
- Rosario (ROS) – El Calafate (FTE)
Besides the restarts, Aerolineas Argentinas inaugurated operations between Mendoza and Tucuman on October 2nd. The company will have two weekly services with Embraer 190 aircraft, configured for 96 passengers.
- AR 1477: Monday and Thursday (MDZ – TUC)
- AR 1476: Wednesday and Saturday (TUC – MDZ)
This route was last operated by JetSMART Argentina until November 2019.
On September 29th, Aerolineas Argentinas incorporated a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 to its fleet. The aircraft, with registration LV-KKD, arrived at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza airport from Phoenix (Goodyear) via Punta Cana.
This particular Boeing 737 MAX had previously been part of Canadian low-cost carrier Flair Airlines. In early 2023, the jet was seized due to non-payment of the lease and remained inactive until being take up by the Argentinean airline.
Aerolineas Argentinas now has eight MAXs in its fleet, bringing its total to 82 aircraft. In the short term, the airline will add two more Boeing 737 MAX (LV-KIU and LV-KIV).
Aeromexico
Aeromexico will begin operations to the United States with Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft starting in November. At the time of publication, all flights will be from Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport.
Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando and San Francisco will be served by the type, which is configured for 181 passengers.
- Chicago (ORD): November 16th
- Denver (DEN): November 1st
- Las Vegas (LAS): November 1st
- Los Angeles (LAX): December 14th
- Miami (MIA): December 1st
- Orlando (MCO): December 1st
- San Francisco (SFO): November 16th
In addition to these cities, Aeromexico flies to Dallas, Detroit, Houston, New York, San Antonio and Seattle as well.
At the same time, Aeromexico will inaugurate 17 new routes in January 2024 in the Mexico – United States market.
According to the airline, the new routes will be as follows:
- Bajío (BJX) – Atlanta (ATL)
- Bajío (BJX) – Detroit (DTW)
- Guadalajara (GDL) – Atlanta (ATL)
- Guadalajara (GDL) – Detroit (DTW)
- Merida (MID) – Atlanta (ATL)
- Mexico City (MEX) – Boston (BOS)
- Mexico City (MEX) – Detroit (DTW)
- Mexico City (MEX) – Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Mexico City (MEX) – Washington, D.C. (IAD)
- Mexico City (NLU) – Dallas (DFW)
- Mexico City (NLU) – McAllen (MFE)
- Monterrey (MTY) – Atlanta (ATL)
- Monterrey (MTY) – Los Angeles (LAX)
- Monterrey (MTY) – New York (JFK)
- Monterrey (MTY) – Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Queretaro (QRO) – Atlanta (ATL)
- Queretaro (QRO) – Detroit (DTW)
Avior
Avior, a Venezuelan airline, announced the resumption of flights between Caracas and Curaçao as of October 4th. The carrier will operate twice a week with Boeing 737 aircraft.
Curaçao becomes the second destination in Avior’s international schedule after Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.
Avianca
Avianca will inaugurate flights between Bogota and Cusco, Peru, starting October 29th. This route will be operated four times a week, and will continue with an extension to La Paz, Bolivia.
- AV 105 Bogota – Cusco – La Paz: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
- AV 104 La Paz – Cusco – Bogota: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
The airline currently operates a daily flight on the Bogota – La Paz – Bogota route.
Azul
The Brazilian airline inaugurated its flights between Belo Horizonte and Orlando on September 24th. Azul will offer twice weekly service on this route with Airbus A330-200 and Airbus A330neo aircraft.
Belo Horizonte is Azul’s third destination in Orlando, where it already operated from Campinas and Recife. Campinas has seven flights per week, and Recife two, in both cases with the same type of jets.
Regarding upcoming additions in the international area, Azul will launch its flights between Curitiba and Montevideo, a route never operated before. Flights will start in late October, and will remain regular for the whole year.
Furthermore, also to Uruguay, it will incorporate the following seasonal routes to Montevideo and Punta del Este in December, available until early February 2024:
- Florianopolis (FLN) – Montevideo (MVD)
- Campinas (VCP) – Punta del Este (PDP)
At present, the United States, France, Portugal and Uruguay are Azul’s international markets from Brazil.
Boliviana de Aviacion
As part of its international development, Boliviana de Aviacion announced the opening of three new routes from Santa Cruz de la Sierra starting in October.
- Asuncion (ASU): October 19th – 2 weekly flights
- Caracas (CCS): October 31st – 1 weekly flight
- Havana (HAV): October 26th – 1 weekly flight
These operations will have connections with the rest of Boliviana de Aviacion’s schedule, both domestic and international.
The Bolivian state-owned airline’s current international markets in Latin America are Argentina, Brazil and Peru. It operates from Cochabamba and Viru Viru to Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, while the Peruvian capital has services to Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Conviasa
Conviasa will recover its connection between Venezuela and Barbados, with the beginning of two routes as of mid-October.
Caracas and Isla Margarita (Porlamar) will have operations with Bridgetown, the capital of the aforementioned Caribbean country. Each route will be offered once a week with Embraer E190 aircraft.
- Caracas (CCS) – Bridgetown (BGI): Wednesday
- Porlamar (PMV) – Bridgetown (BGI): Sunday
Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Iran, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Syria are the international markets currently served by Conviasa.
Flybondi
During September, the low-cost airline added two Boeing 737-800s to its fleet, to reach a total of 15 aircraft. Both planes are 17 years old and previously operated in China.
Flybondi consolidates as the second biggest airline in Argentina, with a total of 19 routes in the country, as well as three international segments.
Bariloche, Buenos Aires AEP, Buenos Aires EZE, Comodoro Rivadavia, Cordoba, Corrientes, El Calafate, Iguazu, Jujuy, Mendoza, Neuquen, Posadas, Puerto Madryn, Salta, Santiago del Estero, Tucuman and Ushuaia are part of the cabotage schedule, while Florianopolis, Río de Janeiro and Sao Paulo fill out the international network.
GOL
The Brazilian airline has announced new seasonal routes to Buenos Aires for 2023/2024 summer season. Currently, in Argentina, GOL offers services to Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Mendoza and Rosario, being the main airline in the market.
From Buenos Aires, GOL operates to Florianopolis, Joao Pessoa, Maceio, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Sao Paulo. For the case of Cordoba, it has flights from Rio de Janeiro, while from Mendoza and Rosario it flies to Sao Paulo.
At the time of publication of this post, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Navegantes and Porto Seguro will be the new additions of GOL to the Argentine capital city.
- Belo Horizonte (CNF): December 16th
- Brasilia (BSB): January 2nd, 2024
- Navegantes (NVT): January 3rd, 2024
- Porto Seguro (BPS): January 5th, 2024
At the same time, there will be an increase on frequencies for the following routes:
- Buenos Aires (EZE) – Florianopolis (FLN): from 1 weekly to 14
- Buenos Aires (EZE) – Natal (NAT): from 1 weekly to 2
- Buenos Aires (EZE) – Rio de Janeiro (GIG): from 1 weekly to 16
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, GOL will operate more than one daily flight between Sao Paulo and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
Starting December 3rd, the airline will serve this route 10 times a week, which is carried out with Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, configured for 186 passengers.
The schedule will be available until the end of January 2024, with the seven weekly flights returning on February 1st.
JetSMART
After a two-year period, JetSMART suspended its flights between Buenos Aires and Posadas on September 30th. The Argentine low cost carrier, based at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery airport, operated three to four times a week in this segment, with Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
JetSMART discontinued this route arguing low profitability, and mainly due to strong competition in what is considered a small market. Aerolineas Argentinas and Flybondi offer flights between these two cities.
Posadas is an Argentine city located in the northeast of the country, neighbor to Encarnacion, in Paraguay. Buenos Aires is its main destination, followed by Cordoba, where it has four weekly Aerolineas Argentinas flights in Embraer 190s.
This becomes JetSMART’s second cancellation in Argentina in the last month, as on August 31st it made the final flight between Buenos Aires and Comodoro Rivadavia, in the Argentine Patagonia.
JetSMART has eight Airbus A320s based in Argentina, and plans to increase its international routes in the summer.
Florianopolis is already confirmed, which will have flights from and to Buenos Aires, and also plans to boost flights to Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile.
LATAM
On September 30th, LATAM Airlines announced the addition of two new aircraft to its fleet.
The airline’s first Airbus A321neo, which has the Brazilian registration PS-LBB, arrived from Hamburg, recently taken out of the Airbus factory in the German country.
Simultaneously, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner ex Norwegian, landed in Santiago de Chile coming from Abu Dhabi, where it received the LATAM Airlines livery. In this case, the registration is CC-BGW.
Volaris
Volaris will begin flights between Mexico City and Lima with its 236- and 239-seat Airbus A321neo aircraft starting November 19th. The carrier has at present seven services per week between the two capital cities on Airbus A320neo.
According to the airline’s schedule, operations with Airbus A321s will be on November 19th, 20th and 21st, and from December onwards, once a week.
Therefore, six weekly flights will be with the Airbus A320neo, and the remaining one with the A321.
Equair
Equair, an Ecuadorian airline with bases in Guayaquil and Quito, made its last flight on the evening of September 29th, reporting on September 30th its immediate cessation of operations, causing a big impact in the Ecuadorian market.
The company had started flights on January 10th, 2022, connecting Guayaquil and Quito with the Boeing 737-7K5, registration HC-CXB. At the time, Equair had two Boeing 737-700s in its fleet, with a third being added in November of that year.
The carrier had regular domestic destinations, in addition to charter routes from Ecuador to different parts of the Caribbean.
Equair dominated the charter market as it was one of the only operators on these routes, so it will be difficult to replace this airline in the short term.
Aeroregional, Avianca and LATAM will continue to operate in the Ecuadorian market in the domestic sector. Currently, Avianca and LATAM also offer international services from Guayaquil and Quito.
This was Equair’s last flight, at least for now:
- HN1039, from Guayaquil (GYE) to Quito (UIO), on September 29th.
