During the Annual Congress of the Argentine Federation of Associations of Travel and Tourism Companies (FAEVYT) held in Tucumán last week, Aerolíneas Argentinas announced an increase in its international operations.
The announcement of the reopening of Argentine borders by air brings relief to those who wish to travel abroad for various reasons. Effective October 1, citizens and residents of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay will be able to enter the country if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and effective November 1, citizens of other countries will be able to enter the country as well.
This pushes the state-owned company to expand its flight offer for the 2022 summer season. Fabián Lombardo, commercial director of the company, announced the schedule from December 2021 to February 2022, being its goal to achieve 80% of the connections it had before the pandemic.
According to Lombardo, Madrid (MAD) in Spain will have 5 weekly flights, there will be 9 weekly flights to Miami (MIA) and 3 weekly flights to New York (JFK) in the United States. Flights to Rome (FCO) in Italy would not be resumed this season and would be tentatively scheduled for March 2022.
The offer to the Caribbean would consist of 3 weekly flights to Cancun (CUN) in Mexico and to Punta Cana (PUJ) in the Dominican Republic, also with 3 weekly flights; both destinations will resume in January 2022. Flights from Cordoba (COR) to Punta Cana will not be part of the plans.
As for regional flights, Bogota (BOG) in Colombia will have 3 weekly flights and Lima (LIM) in Peru another 3 weekly flights. They have recently scheduled the Airbus A330-200 on both routes, replacing the Boeing 737-700, representing a 48% increase in seats.
The regional offer will increase considerably, in light of the fact that most destinations currently have between 1 and 2 weekly flights. Sao Paulo (GRU) will have 2 daily flights and Rio de Janeiro (GIG) one daily flight; Santiago de Chile (SCL) will have 2 daily flights; Montevideo (MVD) and Punta del Este (PDP) in Uruguay will have one daily flight; Asunción (ASU) in Paraguay will have five weekly flights and Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI) in Bolivia will have 2 weekly flights.
There will also be a weekly flight on Saturdays between Mendoza (MDZ) and Santiago de Chile, being at the moment the only international link from the interior of Argentina by the state-owned company.
This suggests that international operations from Cordoba (COR) and Rosario (ROS), for the time being, will not be included in the summer schedule, as well as other routes from Buenos Aires (Ezeiza/Aeroparque) such as Florianopolis (FLN), Porto Alegre (POA), Curitiba (CWB), Salvador (SSA) and Porto Seguro (BPS) in Brazil.
Programmed flights for October and November are on hold, waiting for the authorization of the Argentine aviation authority. Fortunately, it’s estimated that the daily passenger quota that has caused so many inconveniences to passengers and companies will be increased or eliminated as a result of the border relaxation.
At the moment of writing there is still no information from Aerolineas Argentinas regarding their October and November schedule.
