During February many new developments took place in the Latin American market, especially with new routes for the upcoming season, as well as the start-up of new subsidiaries.

Bogotá City and El Dorado Airport

A major announcement is the start of JetSMART Colombia since March 14th, which will operate seven domestic routes with 3 Airbus A320neo.

These are other highlights:

 

Aerolíneas Argentinas to increase flights between Buenos Aires and Madrid.

 

Air Europa inaugurates a new route to the Dominican Republic.

 

Aeromexico returns to South Korea after a two-year hiatus.

 

avianca expands flight frequency on international routes.

 

Copa Airlines announces three new destinations from the “Hub of the Americas”.

 

Emirates starts service to Colombia?

 

Emtrasur and its Boeing 747 retained in Argentina.

 

LATAM and SKY will be adding connections between Chile and Brazil.

 

VivaAerobus adds new routes from Felipe Angeles Airport in Mexico City.

 

In addition, on February 10th, a very extensive chapter of Emtrasur Cargo’s Boeing 747-3B3(M), an aircraft that had been held at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza airport since June 2022, ended.

The 747 was detained at the Argentine airport after arriving from Caracas a year and a half ago.

Aerolíneas Argentinas

Due to the start of the European summer, Aerolíneas Argentinas will increase its flights between Buenos Aires and Madrid starting in July.

For the first time in almost five years, the company will operate two times a day on this route, which is carried out with 265-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Daily

AR 1132  Buenos Aires EZE 23:50 · 17:05+1 MAD Madrid
AR 1133  Madrid MAD 19:55 · 04:05+1 EZE Buenos Aires

 

Daily

AR 1134  Buenos Aires EZE 13:40 · 06:55+1 MAD Madrid
AR 1135  Madrid MAD 09:30 · 17:40 EZE Buenos Aires

 

Madrid and Rome are Aerolíneas Argentinas’ destinations in Europe. As for the Italian capital, where it also operates using Airbus A330s, it offers five weekly services to/from Buenos Aires.

Air Europa

As of June 27th, the Spanish airline will start its flights between Madrid and Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Air Europa will operate this route until early September, as these will be seasonal services.  

Thursday and Saturday

UX 119  Madrid MAD 17:25 · 20:05 STI Santiago
UX 120  Santiago STI 22:05 · 12:20+1 MAD Madrid

 

Santiago de los Caballeros will be Air Europa’s third destination in the Dominican Republic:

Map by gcmap.com

Punta Cana (PUJ): 4 weekly
Santo Domingo (SDQ): 7 weekly

 

Aeromexico

Beginning August 1st, Aeromexico will resume services to South Korea after a two-year suspension. According to the press release, the carrier will offer daily flight on 274-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner jets.

Daily

AM 090  Mexico City MEX 20:00 · 21:50 MTY Monterrey
AM 090  Monterrey MTY 23:55 · 06:00+1 ICN Seoul
AM 091  Seoul ICN 11:40 · 10:20 MEX Mexico City

 

Aeromexico will be the only company to operate between Latin America and South Korea.

Arajet

The Dominican airline added a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 during January, bringing its fleet to nine aircraft.

This Boeing 737 MAX, registration HI1103, entered service on February 7th with flight DM 3590 to Quito and Guayaquil.

Arajet’s fleet

HI1026 · 2 years
HI1027 · 2 years
HI1078 · 4 years
HI1081 · 5 years
HI1082 · 5 years
HI1098 · 6 months
HI1099 · 5 months
HI1103 · 7 years
HI1104 · 5 years

 

avianca

The company will expand frequencies on several of its international routes from Colombia between late March and early April. In line with its website, these are the increases:

Bogotá

Asunción (ASU): from 3 to 5 weekly
Guayaquil (GYE): from 25 to 32 weekly
La Paz (LPB): from 7 to 11 weekly
Mexico City (MEX): from 23 to 28 weekly
Montevideo (MVD): from 4 to 7 weekly
Orlando (MCO): from 10 to 14 weekly
Panama City (PTY): from 8 to 19 weekly
Rio de Janeiro (GIG): from 7 to 11 weekly
San Salvador (SAL): from 13 to 21 weekly
Washington (IAD): from 7 to 14 weekly

 

Medellín

Miami (MIA): from 11 to 15 weekly

 

Azul Linhas Aéreas

Effective February 19th, Azul Linhas Aéreas will inaugurate flights between Brasilia and Belem. In accordance with the press release, the airline will operate once a day with Embraer E-2 aircraft configured for 136 passengers.

Daily

AD 4550  Brasilia BSB 22:50 · 01:05+1 BEL Belem
AD 4551  Belem BEL 03:15 · 05:35 BSB Brasilia

 

Copa Airlines

The carrier announced a major international expansion beginning in June, with the addition of three destinations.

Florianópolis, Raleigh-Durham and Tulum will be Copa’s new routes, which will commence between June 21st and 26th.

Raleigh/Durham · June 21st

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

CM 466  Panama City PTY 08:56 · 14:28 RDU Raleigh/Durham
CM 467  Raleigh/Durham RDU 16:20 · 19:46 PTY Panama City

 

Florianópolis · June 25th

Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

CM 423  Panama City PTY 15:23 · 00:12+1 FLN Florianópolis

 

Monday, Wednesday and Friday

CM 424  Florianópolis FLN 01:54 · 06:30 PTY Panama City

 

Tulum · June 26th

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

CM 488  Panama City PTY 07:45 · 10:18 TQO Tulum
CM 499  Tulum TQO 11:57 · 14:23 PTY Panama City

 

Emirates

The company will boost its services to Argentina and Brazil on December 8th. In South America, Emirates operates to Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, with a total of 11 weekly flights.

In this case, these will be the increases:

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 02:55+1 · 00:30+2 DXB Dubai

 

The airline will add a new service on Saturdays.

In addition, it was recently reported that Emirates has requested authorization to operate the Dubai – Miami – Bogota (Colombia) route with Boeing 777 aircraft.

There is no major information regarding this matter, but in case it finally becomes a reality, it would be Emirates’ fifth destination in Latin America.

Emtrasur Cargo

On Monday, February 12th at 01:30 local time, Emtrasur Cargo’s Boeing 747-3B3(M), registration YV3531, departed Buenos Aires for the United States.

The aircraft had arrived in Argentina from Caracas, Venezuela, on June 6th, 2022. Two days later, as it was unable to refuel at Ministro Pistarini airport, it departed to Uruguay in order to refuel in Montevideo, but Uruguay denied it entry to the airspace, returning to Buenos Aires.

Shortly thereafter, the Boeing 747 was detained in the Argentine capital and the crew, including Iranians and Venezuelans, were arrested.

The crew was soon released, but the plane was held for more than a year and a half.

Emtrasur’s Boeing 747 arrived at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, in Florida, and is now being held there.

In our database, the aircraft does not have coverage the whole time, as it is via MLAT. For more information on the Buenos Aires – Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport flight, you can visit this link, although available in fragments.

Estelar

The Venezuelan airline, which operates with Iberojet’s Airbus A350s, will duplicate its services between Madrid and Caracas as of May 1st. Estelar currently offers one flight per week on this route.

Wednesday and Friday

ES 895  Madrid MAD 12:30 · 17:10 CCS Caracas
ES 894  Caracas CCS 19:10 · 08:50+1 MAD Madrid

 

New flight on Wednesdays.

Three other companies operate between the two capitals.

Air Europa

Daily except Monday and Wednesday

UX 71  Madrid MAD 16:40 · 21:00 CCS Caracas
UX 72  Caracas CCS 23:00 · 12:35+1 MAD Madrid

 

Iberia

Daily except Thursday and Saturday

IB 6673  Madrid MAD 11:55 · 16:20 CCS Caracas
IB 6674  Caracas CCS 18:15 · 07:55+1 MAD Madrid

 

Plus Ultra

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

PU 701  Madrid MAD 13:00 · 17:30 CCS Caracas

 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday

PU 702  Caracas CCS 20:00 · 10:00+1 MAD Madrid

 

Caracas when it had flights of Air France and Alitalia (September 2013).

JetSMART

The low cost carrier announced that it will begin domestic operations in the Colombian market effective March 14th. JetSMART will fly with Airbus A320neo aircraft, and the first one is already performing certification flights in Colombia (CC-AWX).

These will be the routes:

Map by gcmap.com

Bogotá (BOG) – Medellín (MDE): March 14th
Bogotá (BOG) – Cartagena (CTG): March 15th
Medellín (MDE) – Cartagena (CTG): March 18th
Bogotá (BOG) – Santa Marta (SMR): March 19th
Medellín (MDE) – Santa Marta (SMR): March 20th
Bogotá (BOG) – Pereira (PEI): March 21st
Cartagena (CTG) – Pereira (PEI): March 22nd

 

JetSMART Colombia’s first Airbus A320.

Colombia will become JetSMART’s fourth market with domestic flights, after Chile, its main base, Argentina and Peru.

JetSMART currently offers international service to Colombia:

Antofagasta (ANF) – Cali (CLO)
Santiago (SCL) – Bogotá (BOG)
Santiago (SCL) – Cali (CLO)
Santiago (SCL) – Medellín (MDE)

 

LATAM

Starting June 1st, LATAM Airlines will inaugurate flights between the capitals of Chile and Brazil, its two main markets in South America.

The airline will operate with Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircraft with 174 and 220 seats respectively.

At the moment, the flights are not on sale, but it is confirmed that they will fly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

LATAM routes between Chile and Brazil

Map by gcmap.com

Belo Horizonte (CNF)
Brasilia (BSB)
Curitiba (CWB)
Florianópolis (FLN)
Porto Alegre (POA)
Río de Janeiro (GIG)
Sao Paulo (GRU)

 

From Brasilia, with respect to international connections, LATAM has a daily flight to Lima on Airbus A320-200s.

Mexicana de Aviación

The new Mexicana de Aviación, which entered service at late December, recently added a third Boeing 737-800, registered XA-AWM.

With this addition, Mexicana, under military command, reaches 5 aircraft between Boeing 737s and Embraer 145s:

AircraftRegistrationConfigAge

Boeing 737-8MCXA-ASM180 seats8.4 years

Boeing 737-8ZYXA-ATM180 seats7.4 years

Boeing 737-8ZYXA-AWM180 seats7.2 years

Embraer ERJ-145(LR)XA-AFH50 seats25.5 years

Embraer ERJ-145(EP)XA-VGQ50 seats22.9 years

Its hub is the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) in the Mexican capital.

SKY Airline

In addition to LATAM, SKY also continues expanding routes in the Chile-Brazil market.

Beginning in June, the low cost carrier will launch two new connections, both to and from Santiago de Chile airport.

Belo Horizonte · June 1st

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

H2 670  Santiago SCL 12:20 · 17:35 CNF Belo Horizonte
H2 671  Belo Horizonte CNF 18:30 · 22:30 SCL Santiago

 

Brasilia · June 2nd

Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

H2 660  Santiago SCL 12:40 · 17:45 BSB Brasilia
H2 661  Brasilia BSB 18:40 · 22:30 SCL Santiago

 

United Airlines

Starting December 19th, United will inaugurate flights to Tulum, Mexico, from Denver. The company will operate once daily on Boeing 737-900(ER) aircraft seating 179 passengers.

Daily

UA 1698  Denver DEN 09:45 · 15:43 TQO Tulum
UA 1699  Tulum TQO 16:50 · 19:10 DEN Denver

 

Chicago, Houston and Newark will be United Airlines’ regular routes to Tulum, as well as seasonal service to Los Angeles.

VivaAerobus

The Mexican company inaugurated five new routes to/from Felipe Angeles International Airport in Mexico City during January.

Chihuahua, Huatulco, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Tampico were added to the 14 destinations already offered by Viva Aerobus at the airport:

Map by gcmap.com

Acapulco (ACA): 3 weekly
Cancún (CUN): 21 weekly
Chihuahua (CUU): 3 weekly
Ciudad Juárez (CJS): 5 weekly
Guadalajara (GDL): 13 weekly
Havana (HAV): 3 weekly
Hermosillo (HMO): 5 weekly
Huatulco (HUX): 3 weekly
Mazatlán (MZT): 3 weekly
Mérida (MID): 6 weekly
Monterrey (MTY): 20 weekly
Nuevo Laredo (NLD): 2 weekly
Oaxaca (OAX): 4 weekly
Puerto Escondido (PXM): 10 weekly
Reynosa (REX): 7 weekly
Tampico (TAM): 3 weekly
Tijuana (TIJ): 14 weekly
Tulum (TQO): 4 weekly
Zihuatanejo / Ixtapa (ZIH): 2 weekly

 

 

 

Cover photo: Leandro Luiz Pilch – JetPhotos (Rio de Janeiro · Santos Dumont Airport).

The post Latin American route updates – February 2024 appeared first on Flightradar24 Blog.