South America

While Avianca Brasil’s slots may have been auctioned last week, the discussion may not yet come to an end. As legal uncertainty looms over the validity of this auction, the slot sale could be reverted. The main fight is over the slots in the oversaturated Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, which is part of the […]

The United States and Argentina yesterday ratified a new amendment to the bilateral 1985 Air Transport Services Agreement immediately lifting previously established reciprocity restrictions. The new agreement between U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and Argentinian Minister of Transportation Guillermo Dietrich liberalizes the U.S.-Argentina to the extent that any U.S. carrier is allowed to operate […]

The commercial aviation market in Brazil has had an intense first quarter this year. As the new government takes office, the markets are waiting anxiously for the promised economic reforms, reflecting in more investments and thus, accelerating demand. Most important, though, is the collapse of Avianca Brasil, which was the fourth biggest domestic carrier until […]

Last week, LATAM held its quarterly earnings call where it presented some rather bleak financial results for the first few months of the year. In the first quarter of 2019, LATAMs earned $2.525 billion in revenue, which represents a 7.5 percent decrease from the $2.730 billion earned during the same period in 2018. The airline’s […]

Air Europa applied last Friday to operate domestic flights within Brazil. The move is a direct result of new laws in Brazil allowing foreign airlines 100 percent ownership of Brazilian airlines, whereas foreign ownership was previously limited to 25 percent. Brazil’s congress approved last Wednesday the new law, which included the prohibition for airlines to […]

Fort Worth-based American Airlines announced a new connection to Georgetown, Guyana on Thursday from its hub at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The new flight will add to the carrier’s current flights to Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and seasonal service to Rio to be the fourth nonstop flight from JFK Airport to South […]

Norwegian announced it has been granted seven weekly frequencies between Spain and Peru by the Spanish General Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) . If flights commence, the Oslo born carrier will become the fourth airline to operate flights between both countries. The Oslo-based carrier currently flies to Boston, Los Angeles and New York-JFK from its Madrid […]

JetBlue announced the start of new service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Ecuador’s Guayaquil’s José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport (GYE) on Thursday. The new service marks JetBlue’s broader reach into Latin America and the Caribbean. Guayaquil is JetBlue’s sixth destination in South America and second destination in Ecuador. JetBlue’s first flight to […]

South America’s domestic and regional aviation markets have been undergoing a significant transformation over the last few years with an increasing number of operators bringing low-fare alternatives to the region, changing the conceived perception of air travel and the way people fly. Both Indigo Partners’ Chilean headquartered JetSmart’s newly launched Argentinean subsidiary, and Chilean born […]

Viva Air, Irelandia Aviation’s South American venture, has been bringing the ultra-low-cost model and the operational capabilities from the successful Ryanair to transform the way people fly in a region historically driven by concentrated legacy carriers. The holding first launched operations in Colombia in 2012, where the airline was successful in expanding the market base, […]