On Tuesday, September 3rd at 17:16 local time, TAP Air Portugal’s inaugural flight from Lisbon landed at Florianópolis airport. The airline will perform three weekly services on Airbus A330-200 aircraft, being the only to operate regular flights in the Europe – Florianópolis market.

TAP will offer 807 seats a week with this schedule, which will be served by its three A330-200s configured for passenger operations (CS-TON, CS-TOO and CS-TOP).

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

• TP 109  Lisbon LIS 10:10/10:40/11:00 · 17:15/17:45/18:05 FLN Florianópolis

• TP 110  Florianópolis FLN 19:35/20:15/20:40 · 09:50/10:30/10:55+1 LIS Lisbon

Brazil is TAP Air Portugal’s main international market based on the number of destinations, with 13 routes. All of them are operated from/to Lisbon, in addition to some to/from Porto.

Lisbon

• Belem (BEL): 5 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Belo Horizonte (CNF): 7 weekly · Airbus A330neo
• Brasilia (BSB): 7 weekly · Airbus A330neo
• Florianópolis (FLN): 3 weekly · Airbus A330-200
• Fortaleza (FOR): 9 weekly · A32Q/A332/A339
• Maceió (MCZ) via NAT: 3 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Natal (NAT): 6 weekly · Airbus A321neo
• Recife (REC): 13 weekly · A32Q/A339
• Rio de Janeiro (GIG): 12 weekly · Airbus A330neo
• Salvador (SSA): 7 weekly · A332/A339
• Sao Paulo (GRU): 21 weekly · Airbus A330neo

Porto

• Rio de Janeiro (GIG): 1 weekly · Airbus A330neo
• Sao Paulo (GRU): 2 weekly · Airbus A330neo

Furthermore, the company will start flights between Lisbon and Manaus via Belem with Airbus A321neo planes on November 5th.

Regarding Porto Alegre, the airport will resume domestic operations in October, and international services in December. At the moment, TAP has not confirmed a return to Porto Alegre, but this may occur during 2025.

Azul to begin flights to Asunción (Paraguay)

The Brazilian carrier announced its entry into the Paraguayan market, with four new destinations from/to Silvio Pettirossi airport in the country’s capital city.

In accordance with its website, Azul schedules four routes between Brazil and Paraguay, to be provided using Embraer E-2 aircraft configured for 136 passengers in single class.

Campinas · December 2nd

Monday and Friday

• AD 8782  Campinas VCP 09:00 · 11:00 ASU Asunción
• AD 8783  Asunción ASU 12:15 · 14:15 VCP Campinas

Curitiba · December 3rd

Tuesday and Saturday

• AD 8714  Curitiba CWB 11:40 · 13:25 ASU Asunción
• AD 8715  Asunción ASU 14:40 · 16:20 CWB Curitiba

Recife · December 15th

Sunday

• AD 8734  Recife REC 09:30 · 13:55 ASU Asunción
• AD 8735  Asunción ASU 15:10 · 19:30 REC Recife

Florianópolis · December 18th

Wednesday and Sunday

• AD 8762  Florianópolis FLN 12:00 · 13:55 ASU Asunción
• AD 8763  Asunción ASU 15:10 · 16:55 FLN Florianópolis

Considering the number of connections, Azul will be the main airline in the Brazil-Paraguay market.

Turkish confirms start of services to Santiago de Chile

As of December 18th, Turkish will launch operations between Istanbul and Santiago via Sao Paulo. The Chilean capital will become the airline’s ninth destination in Latin America.

Turkish Airlines will offer four weekly flights with 329-seat Airbus A350-900s.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• TK 215  Istanbul IST 14:35 · 04:15+1 GRU Sao Paulo
• TK 215  Sao Paulo GRU 05:50+1 · 09:45+1 SCL Santiago

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

• TK 216  Santiago SCL 11:40 · 15:15 GRU Sao Paulo
• TK 216  Sao Paulo GRU 16:50 · 05:20+1 IST Istanbul

We review other highlights of the Latin American market

• Aerolíneas Argentinas resumes flights between Córdoba and El Calafate.

• Aeromexico expands services to Colombia.

• Aerovías DAP started operations with its new Dash 8.

• Aerus adds three new routes between Monterrey and the United States.

• avianca confirms new connections in Latin America.

• Emirates increases capacity on the Dubai – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires route.

• FedEx launched flights to Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

• Flybondi began a new domestic route in Argentina.

• GOL resumed services between Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo.

• JetSMART expands flights in Colombia.

• LATAM to add international routes to/from Chile.

• Qatar will operate again to Sao Paulo with Airbus A350-1000 aircraft.

• SKY Airline commenced flights between Santiago and Salvador (Brazil).

• Volaris El Salvador began services to San Salvador from San José (Costa Rica).

Aerolíneas Argentinas

After being suspended for four months, the company will resume operations between Córdoba and El Calafate, in the Argentine Patagonia, effective September 16th. The carrier will have two flights per week, according to its website.

Monday and Thursday

• AR 1561  El Calafate FTE 10:50 · 14:05 COR Córdoba
• AR 1560  Córdoba COR 15:10 · 18:35 FTE El Calafate

In October, for high season, Aerolíneas Argentinas will start seasonal services to El Calafate from Bariloche (BRC), Rosario (ROS) and Trelew (REL).

Aerolíneas Argentinas has a hub in Córdoba, offering flights to the north and south of the country. As can be seen in our database, the company operates to Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, Iguazú, Jujuy, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Neuquén, Posadas, Resistencia, Salta, Tucumán and Ushuaia, and to Punta Cana and Rio de Janeiro in the international sector.

Aeromexico

The airline will begin flying between Mexico City and Cartagena on February 20th, 2025. At publication time, these services are not available for purchase through its website, as government approval is pending.

Cartagena will become the Mexican carrier’s third destination in Colombia. It currently operates to Bogotá and Medellín, having been present in the Colombian market since 2010.

• Bogotá (BOG): 21 weekly · Boeing 737 MAX 8
• Cartagena (CTG): 7 weekly · Boeing 737 MAX 8
• Medellín (MDE): 7 weekly · Boeing 737-800

In South America, Buenos Aires, Lima and Sao Paulo are its other destinations to/from MEX.

Aerovías DAP

Its new Dash 8 entered service.

On September 6th at 12:09 local time, the first scheduled flight of DAP’s new aircraft, which has the registration CC-DHT, departed from Punta Arenas, in Chilean Patagonia. This service was to Puerto Williams (WPU), one of its routes from/to PUQ.

• Balmaceda (BBA): Avro RJ85
• Pampa Guanaco (DPB/SCBI): Cessna
• Porvenir (WPR): Cessna
• Puerto Williams (WPU): Dash 8 and Twin Otter

DAP’s Dash 8 has 76 passengers in single class, being the only one in Chile.

Aerus

The Mexican company intends to add, as of September 12th, three new routes between Monterrey and the United States. Flights will be operated by Cessna Caravans configured for 19 passengers.

• Brownsville (BRO): 7 weekly
• Corpus Christi (CRP): 4 weekly
• Laredo (LRD): 2 weekly

Aerus has 8 Cessna Caravans in its fleet.

avianca

New international routes in Latin America will be added by the airline beginning in October and December. In accordance with its website, avianca will operate on Airbus A320s.

• San José (SJO) – Guayaquil (GYE): 4 weekly · October 27th
• Guayaquil (GYE) – Buenos Aires (EZE): 4 weekly · October 27th
• Medellín (MDE) – Sao Paulo (GRU): 3 weekly · December 3rd
• Medellín (MDE) – Guayaquil (GYE): 3 weekly · December 16th
• Cartagena (CTG) – Guayaquil (GYE): 2 weekly · December 17th

Emirates

Starting October 26th, the company will increase capacity on the Dubai – Rio de Janeiro (Galeão) – Buenos Aires (Ezeiza) route, with the introduction of the Boeing 777-300(ER). Emirates currently serves Galeão and Ezeiza using the Boeing 777-200(LR), which has 52 fewer seats than the 77W.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• EK 247  Dubai DXB 08:05 · 15:55 GIG Rio de Janeiro
• EK 247  Rio de Janeiro GIG 17:30 · 20:55 EZE Buenos Aires

• EK 248  Buenos Aires EZE 22:30 · 01:15+1 GIG Rio de Janeiro
• EK 248  Rio de Janeiro GIG 03:00+1 · 00:30+2 DXB Dubai

In addition, for peak season, Emirates will boost from four to five flights per week effective November 2nd (new service on Saturdays).

FedEx

The airline expands its operations in South America, by launching a new route through three countries in the region.

As of September 9th, Federal Express began flights on the Miami – Buenos Aires – Santiago de Chile – Quito – Miami route using Boeing 767-300(F) airplanes.

Santiago de Chile was not part of the first flight.

Campinas is its other South American destination, which is served from Memphis on the same jets.

Flybondi

On September 2nd at 13:01 local time, Flybondi’s inaugural flight from Buenos Aires arrived in San Juan (Argentina). The Argentine low cost carrier will offer four weekly operations on this route with 189-seat Boeing 737-800.

According to its website, Flybondi will fly on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays (flight FO 5330/5331).

Flybondi reaches 19 destinations from the Argentine capital, of which 16 are domestic and the remaining 3 are international. The routes are Bariloche, Comodoro Rivadavia, Córdoba, Corrientes, El Calafate, Florianópolis, Iguazú, Jujuy, Mendoza, Neuquén, Posadas, Puerto Madryn, Rio de Janeiro, Salta, San Juan, Santiago del Estero, Sao Paulo, Tucumán and Ushuaia.

GOL

GOL Linhas Aéreas resumed services between Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo on September 1st. In accordance with our database, the company will perform three flights a week on Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• G3 9448  Rio de Janeiro GIG 22:00 · 01:15+1 MVD Montevideo
• G3 9449  Montevideo MVD 03:45 · 06:30 GIG Rio de Janeiro (Mon, Thu, Sat)

As well as GOL, JetSMART operates this route with Airbus A320s and Airbus A321s. Effective mid-December, for summer season, SKY will start flying between the two cities, providing four weekly frequencies.

JetSMART

The low cost carrier continues to expand its flights in Colombia, confirming two new domestic routes in early-December.

Both connections will be to/from Medellín, with the following schedule:

• Montería (MTR): 7 weekly · December 5th
• Barranquilla (BAQ): 7 weekly · December 6th

LADE

Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE) is an airline owned by the Argentine Air Force. LADE has some passenger flights within the country, with Fokker 28, Saab 340 and Twin Otter aircraft.

In order to modernize its fleet, the company began operating in mid-August its only route to/from Buenos Aires on 50-seat Embraer 145s, replacing the Fokker 28s, to be retired in the near future, which were incorporated in the 1970s, new from the Netherlands.

LADE has one flight per week on the Buenos Aires Aeroparque – Mar del Plata – Bahía Blanca – Bariloche route and vice versa.

• 5U 702  Buenos Aires AEP 08:00 · 08:45 MDQ Mar del Plata
• 5U 702  Mar del Plata MDQ 09:25 · 10:10 BHI Bahía Blanca
• 5U 702  Bahía Blanca BHI 11:10 · 12:30 BRC Bariloche

• 5U 703  Bariloche BRC 13:10 · 14:30 BHI Bahía Blanca
• 5U 703  Bahía Blanca BHI 15:10 · 15:55 MDQ Mar del Plata
• 5U 703  Mar del Plata MDQ 16:35 · 17:20 AEP Buenos Aires

The main schedule of Líneas Aéreas del Estado is performed in the Argentine Patagonia.

LATAM

The carrier will boost its international services from Chile for 2024/25 South American summer season.

Bariloche and Punta del Este, in Argentina and Uruguay respectively, will have these flights by Airbus A320 jets.

Punta del Este · December 5th

Thursday, Friday and Sunday

• LA 431  Santiago SCL 07:00 · 09:20 PDP Punta del Este
• LA 430  Punta del Este PDP 10:20 · 12:55 SCL Santiago

Bariloche · December 6th

Friday/Sunday and Saturday

• LA 439  Santiago SCL 16:41/12:55 · 18:35/14:50 BRC Bariloche
• LA 438  Bariloche BRC 19:30/15:45 · 21:20/17:35 SCL Santiago

Paranair

The governor of an Argentine province confirmed that the Paraguayan airline intends to begin flights from Asunción. These services would commence in November, operated twice a week on CRJ-200 planes.

Thursday/Sunday

• ZP 870  Asunción ASU 11:40/14:00 · 13:20/15:40 JUJ Jujuy
• ZP 871  Jujuy JUJ 14:00/16:20 · 15:40/18:00 ASU Asunción

At the time of publication, there are no flights for sale on what would be its third route to Argentina, following Buenos Aires and Córdoba.

Qatar

Qatar’s Airbus A350-1000s will fly to Sao Paulo.

The airline will resume operations between Doha and Guarulhos with these aircraft as of October 27th. A350-1000s will once again cover this route after almost three years.

Daily (Boeing 777-200LR)

• QR 779  Doha DOH 01:05 · 10:25 GRU Sao Paulo
• QR 780  Sao Paulo GRU 20:25 · 17:00+1 DOH Doha

Daily (A35K)

• QR 773  Doha DOH 07:55 · 17:15 GRU Sao Paulo
• QR 774  Sao Paulo GRU 01:10 · 21:45 DOH Doha

In February 2023, Qatar Airways announced the resumption of flights on the Doha – Sao Paulo – Buenos Aires route from December 2023. Finally, the restart was postponed, and so far there is no confirmed date of return to Argentina.

SATENA

The company will open new domestic routes in Colombia during September, which will be operated with Beechcraft and Embraer 145 planes.

• Cali (CLO) – Mandinga (COG): 2 weekly · September 23rd
• Cali (CLO) – Neiva (NVA): 2 weekly · September 23rd
• Popayán (PPN) – Guapi (GPI): 3 weekly · September 23rd
• Cali (CLO) – Bahía Solano (BSC): 2 weekly · September 24th
• Neiva (NVA) – San Vicente del Caguán (SVI): 2 weekly · September 25th
• Cali (CLO) – Pitalito (PTX): 2 weekly · September 24th
• Cali (CLO) – Nuquí (NQU): 2 weekly · September 28th
• Cúcuta (CUC) – Arauca (AUC): 2 weekly · October 22nd (only with E145)

SKY

At 12:05 local time on September 2nd, SKY Airline’s first flight from Santiago de Chile landed in Salvador (Bahia). The airline will have two weekly services on this route by Airbus A320neo aircraft.

Monday and Friday

• H2 680  Santiago SCL 07:00 · 12:30 SSA Salvador
• H2 681  Salvador SSA 13:30 · 19:40 SCL Santiago

SKY also operates twice a week the Santiago – Montevideo – Salvador route and vice versa.

SKYhigh Dominicana

The carrier will expand its services in the Caribbean with two new routes from Santo Domingo, its hub in the Dominican Republic.

SKYhigh will perform these flights on Embraer 190s configured for 97 passengers in two classes.

• San Juan (SJU): 7 weekly · October 15th
• Pointe-a-Pitre (PTP): 2 weekly · October 17th

Star Perú

Lima – Iquitos, again on Star Peru’s schedule from mid-August.

The company will operate two daily frequencies on this route with Boeing 737-300s seating 143 passengers.

Daily

• 2I 3111  Lima LIM 07:15 · 09:05 IQT Iquitos
• 2I 3111  Iquitos IQT 09:40 · 10:40 PCL Pucallpa
• 2I 3111  Pucallpa PCL 11:15 · 12:20 LIM Lima

• 2I 3131  Lima LIM 11:45 · 12:50 PCL Pucallpa
• 2I 3131  Pucallpa PCL 13:25 · 14:25 IQT Iquitos
• 2I 3131  Iquitos IQT 15:00 · 16:50 LIM Lima

Daily

• 2I 3220  Lima LIM 19:15 · 21:05 IQT Iquitos
• 2I 3221  Iquitos IQT 21:40 · 23:30 LIM Lima

Cajamarca, Chiclayo, Huánuco, Iquitos, Lima, Pucallpa and Tarapoto are Star’s destinations in Peru.

St. Barth Executive

Beginning February 23rd, 2025, St. Barth Executive is scheduled to commence flights to Sint Maarten Grand Case Airport. 

Services are planned on a daily basis using 8-passenger Pilatus PC12s.

Daily

• LE 060  St. Barthélemy SBH 16:00 · 16:15 SFG Sint Maarten
• LE 061  Sint Maarten SFG 16:45 · 17:00 SBH St. Barthélemy

Turkish Airlines

We review Turkish’s route network in Latin America.

Argentina

• IST – GRU – Buenos Aires (EZE) – GRU – IST: 7 weekly · Airbus A350-900

Brazil

• IST – Sao Paulo (GRU) – IST: 11 weekly · Airbus A350-900

Chile · eff December 18th

• IST – GRU – Santiago (SCL) – GRU – IST: 4 weekly · Airbus A350-900

Colombia/Panama

• IST – Bogotá (BOG) – Panama City (PTY) – IST: 7 weekly · Boeing 787-9

Cuba/Venezuela

• IST – Havana (HAV) – Caracas (CCS) – IST: 4 weekly · Boeing 787-9

Mexico

• IST – Mexico City (MEX) – Cancún (CUN) – IST: 11 weekly · Boeing 787-9

Panama

• IST – Panama City (PTY) – IST: 3 weekly · Boeing 787-9

Venezuela

• IST – Caracas (CCS) – IST: 3 weekly · Boeing 787-9

Volaris El Salvador

On September 3rd at 09:29 local time the inaugural flight of Volaris El Salvador took off from San Salvador to San José (Costa Rica). The airline will operate twice-weekly flights using Airbus A320neo jets.

Tuesday and Friday

• N3 4340  San Salvador SAL 09:00 · 10:16 SJO San José
• N3 4341  San José SJO 11:01 · 12:18 SAL San Salvador

Avianca offers 26 operations per week between the two cities.

We review the aircraft added by Latin American airlines

• Aeromexico (x3)

• Azul Linhas Aéreas

• Estelar Latinoamérica (Transmandu)

• GOL Linhas Aéreas

• JetSMART

• LATAM Airlines

*It’s not new from the factory.

**The Boeing 767 was converted to freighter in Singapore.

As can be seen through social media, DAP’s new Dash 8 suffered a tail strike on September 9th at Guardiamarina Zañartu airport in Puerto Williams, on what was its second regular flight from Punta Arenas.

The jet is currently in Puerto Williams, where it will be repaired.

Voepass crash

On August 9th, Voepass ATR 72-500, registration PS-VPB, crashed while covering flight 2Z 2283 between Cascavel and Sao Paulo Guarulhos. The aircraft went down near Vinhedo, a few kilometers from Viracopos airport, with 58 passengers and 4 crew members killed.

The Brazilian investigation authority Cenipa (Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos) published a preliminary report about the accident.

This report indicates that minutes after takeoff from Cascavel, the crew commented that there was still ice on the aircraft, even though the de-icing system was activated.

Subsequently, the crew turned the system on and off several times. Following contact with Sao Paulo Approach, the Degraded Perfomance alert sounded. The crew did not make an emergency call at any time.

Two minutes before the loss of control, the co-pilot said he saw a lot of ice on the aircraft.

The report does not determine the cause of the accident.

Passaredo Linhas Aéreas began operations in July 1995, with Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia and Airbus A310-300 aircraft. Later, the airline incorporated its first ATRs to its fleet.

In mid-2002, the airline ceased services due to a financial crisis, resuming flights in 2004 using Embraer 145 jets. The ATRs returned to the Brazilian carrier in 2011.

On August 21st, 2019, Passaredo announced the acquisition of MAP Linhas Aéreas, another airline in Brazil. In addition, on the same day, Passaredo changed its name, thus giving start to Voepass Linhas Aéreas.

Voepass has 16 aircraft in its fleet (2 ATR 42 and 14 ATR 72). Its base of operations is Ribeirão Prieto airport, having domestic flights in Brazil.

Other reports we have published

• Europe
• Asia and Oceania
• Africa and Middle East
• United States and Canada
• Play makes a play for Portugal
• Reconnecting capitals: Air Canada to restart Ottawa-London flights

Cover photo: Davi Ávila – JetPhotos