We continue with the market updates, this time with the Latin American region. To review the first post of the year about the United States and Canada, you can click on the following link:

• United States and Canada – January 2024.

The main updates in the Latin American market are related to the summer season, which in part of the region starts in January and ends by the end of March. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay are some of the countries with new developments related to the holiday season.

Another important event in December was the restart of Mexicana de Aviación, in this case under military control.

The historic Mexican airline resumed services after 10 years of inactivity. For the time being, all operations will be carried out from/to Felipe Angeles Airport, located in Mexico City.

In terms of fleet additions, JetSMART finished the year in the best way possible, adding 6 new aircraft between early and mid-December. Furthermore, American Jet, an Argentine airline with almost 30 years in business, added its first ATR 42-600, also new from the factory.

Aerolíneas Argentinas

Last January 3rd, due to the beginning of the high season, Aerolíneas Argentinas started its seasonal flights between Mendoza and Rio de Janeiro. The company will operate twice a week until early March.

Wednesday and Saturday

• AR 1236  Mendoza MDZ 14:00 · 17:40 GIG Río de Janeiro

Tuesday and Saturday

• AR 1237  Río de Janeiro GIG 12:15 · 16:45 MDZ Mendoza

In addition, also for the summer, Aerolíneas Argentinas initiated the following connections:

• Buenos Aires (AEP) – Florianópolis (FLN)
• Córdoba (COR) – Florianópolis (FLN)
• Córdoba (COR) – Río de Janeiro (GIG)
• Resistencia (RES) – Iguazú (IGR)
• Rosario (ROS) – Mar del Plata (MDQ)

Aeromexico

Effective July 1st, 2024, Aeromexico will begin services between Mexico City and Raleigh-Durham. According to its website, the carrier will have a daily flight on Aeromexico Connect’s Embraer 190s.

Daily

• AM 430  Mexico City MEX 09:05 · 15:15 RDU Raleigh-Durham
• AM 431  Raleigh-Durham RDU 16:30 · 18:35 MEX Mexico City

Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fresno, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle are the U.S. cities with Aeromexico operations.

Alaska Airlines

The company inaugurated flights to Guatemala City on December 15th. Alaska will offer one service a day with the 163-seat Boeing 737-800 jets to/from Los Angeles.

Daily

• AS 1353  Los Angeles LAX 23:25 · 06:00+1 GUA Guatemala City
• AS 1354  Guatemala City GUA 11:45 · 15:05 LAX Los Angeles

Alaska became the fifth airline with flights between Los Angeles and Guatemala:

• Alaska: 7 weekly · Boeing 737
• Avianca: 14 weekly · Airbus A320
• Delta: 6 weekly · Boeing 757
• United: 7 weekly · Boeing 737
• Volaris Costa Rica: 10 weekly · A319/A320

American Jet

The new ATR 42-600 of American Jet, registration LV-KKZ, arrived at San Fernando airport in Buenos Aires last December 30th, fresh from the factory in Toulouse. The delivery flight lasted almost three days, with stops in Gran Canaria, Praia, Natal and Curitiba.

This is the carrier’s first ATR 42-600 and the second ATR 42 in its fleet.

American Jet is an Argentine airline dedicated to mining operations in the north and south of the country, as well as offering domestic and international charter flights with its Embraer 145s.

In addition to this ATR, the company added these aircraft during 2023:

• Learjet 60XR LV-KJJ
• Beech 1900D LV-KKQ

American Jet has owned the ATR 42-320 registered as LV-CZJ since October 2012.

avianca

The carrier will inaugurate operations between Bogota and Caracas as of February 1st. The Colombian capital will be avianca’s second destination from/to Caracas.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

• AV 142  Bogotá BOG 11:59 · 15:00 CCS Caracas
• AV 143  Caracas CCS 16:33 · 17:30 BOG Bogotá

San José de Costa Rica is the only current destination.

Azul (and Rivera airport)

In November, Uruguay and Brazil inaugurated the first binational airport in South America, and the second in the Latin American region. This airport is located in Rivera, Uruguay, and will also serve Brazil.

Aeropuertos Uruguay, the concessionaire of Rivera airport, finished the remodeling work after three months of activity. Changes and improvements were made throughout the airport.

After the work was presented, executives of Aeropuertos Uruguay and Azul announced that the Brazilian airline will start its services to Rivera within 90 days at the latest. Flights will be operated to/from Porto Alegre, the company’s main hub in southern Brazil.

The aircraft were not confirmed, but are expected to use Cessna Grand Caravan or ATRs.

Azul Linhas Aéreas already operates to Montevideo and Punta del Este from Brazil, with respect to the carrier’s destinations in Uruguay.

Montevideo

• Curitiba (CWB): 4 weekly · Embraer 195
• Florianópolis (FLN): 3 weekly · Embraer E-2
• Porto Alegre (POA): 4 weekly · A320/Embraer
• Recife (REC): 2 weekly · Airbus A320neo

Punta del Este

• Campinas (VCP): 2 weekly · Embraer E-2
• Porto Alegre (POA): 2 weekly · Embraer 195
• Sao Paulo (GRU): 2 weekly · Airbus A320neo

Rivera

• Porto Alegre (POA): 2 weekly · tentatively

Bahamasair

The company has again programmed flights between Nassau and Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. According to the informed schedule, Bahamasair will operate two services during the month of February.

February 8th

• UP 812  Nassau NAS 16:00 · 20:30 POS Port of Spain
• UP 813  Port of Spain POS 21:45 · 00:15+1 NAS Nassau

February 14th

• UP 814  Nassau NAS 08:30 · 13:00 POS Port of Spain
• UP 815  Port of Spain POS 14:15 · 16:45 NAS Nassau

Bahamasair’s international destinations to/from Nassau

Cuba

• Havana (HAV): 2 weekly · Boeing 737

Haití

• Cap-Haïtien (CAP): 2 weekly · Boeing 737

Turks and Caicos Islands

• Providenciales (PLS): 2 weekly · ATR/737

United States

• Fort Lauderdale (FLL): 18 weekly · ATR/737
• Miami (MIA): 17 weekly · ATR/737
• Orlando (MCO): 11 weekly · ATR/737

Copa Airlines

For the high season, Copa has doubled its flight frequency between Panama City and Belize City effective January 9th. The airline operates this route with 132-seat Boeing 737-700 planes.

Tuesday and Friday

• CM 280  Panama City PTY 15:10 · 16:37 BZE Belize City
• CM 281  Belize City BZE 17:24 · 20:44 PTY Panama City

Copa Airlines is adding a new flight on Tuesdays, which will run through February at the time of publication.

GOL

The Brazilian airline began seasonal services between Navegantes and Buenos Aires last January 4th. As of press time, GOL will operate this route during the South American summer season.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• G3 9512  Navegantes NVT 23:20 · 01:40 EZE Buenos Aires

Saturday

• G3 9516  Navegantes NVT 14:05 · 16:35 EZE Buenos Aires

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• G3 9515  Buenos Aires EZE 03:00 · 05:05 NVT Navegantes

Sunday

• G3 9517  Buenos Aires EZE 06:00 · 08:15 NVT Navegantes

Routes and connections from Navegantes airport

• Belo Horizonte (CNF): 2 weekly · GOL
• Buenos Aires (EZE): 5 weekly · GOL
• Campinas (VCP): 29 weekly · Azul
• Congonhas/Sao Paulo (CGH): 34 weekly · GOL
• Congonhas/Sao Paulo (CGH): 40 weekly · LATAM
• Guarulhos/Sao Paulo (GRU): 14 weekly · GOL
• Guarulhos/Sao Paulo (GRU): 28 weekly · LATAM
• Porto Alegre (POA): 12 weekly · Azul
• Río de Janeiro (GIG): 8 weekly · GOL

Hi Fly

European tourists usually visit the south of Argentina during the South American summers, either for tourism and visit the city of Ushuaia, or also for cruise trips, which generally go to Antarctica.

Between late December and early January, Hi Fly made two charter flights to Ushuaia from Frankfurt, both with stops in Espargos.

Airbus A340-312 · 9H-SUN

• Dec 20th, 2023  Frankfurt FRA 20:03 · 23:46 SID Espargos
• Dec 21st, 2023  Espargos SID 02:14 · 11:32 USH Ushuaia

Airbus A340-313X · 9H-SOL

• Jan 2nd, 2024  Frankfurt FRA 20:50 · 01:08+1 SID Espargos
• Jan 3rd, 2024  Espargos SID 03:09 · 12:09 USH Ushuaia

JetSMART

Between December 3rd and 21st, the Chilean low cost airline added six new aircraft fresh from the factory, an important achievement for JetSMART, as it had acquired four in the previous 11 months of the year.

These airplanes, all Airbus, arrived in Santiago (SCL) from Hamburg, Toulouse or Mobile.

Airbus A321neo (departure from XFW on Dec 2nd)

• CC-DIB: Hamburg XFW – Reykjavik KEF – Newport News PHF – Cali CLO – Santiago SCL

A320neo (departure from XFW on Dec 12th)

• CC-DIE: Hamburg XFW – Reykjavik KEF – Bangor BGR – Panama City PTY – Santiago SCL

Airbus A320neo (departure from BFM on Dec 14th)

• CC-DIA: Mobile BFM – Santiago SCL

Airbus A320neo (departure from TLS on Dec 19th)

• CC-DIH: Toulouse TLS – Reykjavik KEF – Bangor BGR – Cali CLO – Santiago SCL

A320neo (departure from BFM on Dec 21st)

• CC-DID: Mobile BFM – Santiago SCL

Airbus A321neo (departure from XFW on Dec 21st)

• CC-DIC: Hamburg XFW – Reykjavik KEF – Bangor BGR – Cali CLO – Santiago SCL

LATAM

Starting October 27th, LATAM plans to begin flights between Bogota and Ibagué. The company schedules daily service with 174-seat Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

Ibagué is a Colombian city located just over 100 kilometers from Bogotá, the country’s capital.

Daily

• LA 4389/4388 (check timetables as there are different ones every day)

Current routes to/from Ibagué (IBE)

• Bogotá (BOG): Avianca
• Cartagena (CTG): Clic
• Medellín (EOH): Clic

Mexicana de Aviación

The new Mexicana de Aviación, now under military control, began scheduled service on December 26th, with its inaugural flight between two recently inaugurated airports.

The Boeing 737-8MC, registration XA-ASM, departed Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles Airport (AIFA) for Tulum. Due to weather conditions, the aircraft was diverted to Merida, arriving in Tulum a few hours later.

Mexicana de Aviación had planned to start with almost 20 routes within Mexico, but currently the following routes are available:

• Acapulco (ACA)
• Campeche (CPE)
• Chetumal (CTM)
• Ciudad Victoria (CVM)
• Guadalajara (GDL)
• Ixtapa (ZIH)
• Ixtepec (IZT)
• Mérida (MID)
• Monterrey (MTY)
• Mazatlán (MZT)
• Nuevo Laredo (NLD)
• Palenque (PQM)
• Puerto Vallarta (PVR)
• Tijuana (TIJ)
• Tulum (TQO)
• Uruapan (UPN)
• Villahermosa (VSA)

The airline has a Boeing 737-800 and an Embraer 145 in its fleet.

SKY

Last January 2nd, after a four-year suspension, SKY Airline resumed its regular operations to Montevideo with a strong investment. 

The low cost carrier will have four connections to/from the Uruguayan capital, which will be performed each three times a week with 186-seat Airbus A320neo jets.

Florianópolis

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• H8 5585  Montevideo MVD 07:15 · 09:05 FLN Florianópolis

Monday, Thursday and Saturday

• H8 5586  Florianópolis FLN 01:50 · 03:50 MVD Montevideo

Lima

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• H8 5585  Lima LIM 23:45 · 06:20+1 MVD Montevideo

Monday, Thursday and Saturday

• H8 5586  Montevideo MVD 07:15 · 09:05 LIM Lima

Salvador

Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

• H2 640  Montevideo MVD 08:20 · 12:35 SSA Salvador
• H2 641  Salvador SSA 13:30 · 18:10 MVD Montevideo

Santiago

Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

• H2 640  Santiago SCL 05:10 · 07:25 MVD Montevideo
• H2 641  Montevideo MVD 19:05 · 21:40 SCL Santiago

Sky High

Effective January 22nd, Sky High will launch flights between Santiago de los Caballeros and Valencia (Venezuela). The Dominican company will operate twice weekly with 97-seat Embraer 190 aircraft.

Monday and Thursday

• DO 723  Valencia VLN 08:00 · 09:40 STI Santiago de los Caballeros
• DO 722  Santiago de los Caballeros STI 18:30 · 20:00 VLN Valencia

These services will connect Valencia to the U.S. with a stop in Santiago de los Caballeros. Currently, Venezuela does not have regular non-stop flights from/to the USA.

Cover photo: Fran Romero (Buenos Aires Aeroparque) – JetPhotos.