How’s Argentina’s airline recovery going?

Following Brazil’s airline recovery analysis, today we’ll check out how’s Argentina’s airline recovery going. To do that, we’ll use the Civil Aviation National Agency (ANAC) stats, which are some of the most up-to-date across Latin America. We already have information up to August 2021. A prolonged recovery? Argentina has been IATA’s example in the last year as the country which shouldn’t be a role model. IATA has been adamantly against Argentina’s travel restrictions, stating that they’re impacting the local society. Between March and October 2020, Argentina was closed entirely. There were no domestic nor international flights, except for those of humanitarian reasons. Since October, the domestic Argentinian airline industry has been slowly picking up. There have been 2.91 million passengers between January and August 2021. Compared to the 10.5 million of 2019, the Argentinian airline industry has recovered nearly 28% of its pre-pandemic travelers. That’s not a good recovery. Nevertheless, there has slowly been an increase in the number of daily domestic passengers in the country. In January, Argentina averaged 9,857 daily national travelers on Mondays; by August, the number had increased to 20,041. Compared to the same data from 2019, it is a 44% recovery. As of August, Aerolíneas Argentinas has a 67% market share in the country. During this month, the State carrier had 359,591 passengers. Flybondi carried 94,635, and JetSmart had 77,941 travelers. [caption id="attachment_57359" align="aligncenter" width="580"] A snapshot of Argentina's domestic traffic in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Photo: ANAC[/caption] The top ten domestic Argentinian airports The Argentinian ANAC made a list of the top ten most visited airports by domestic travelers. Buenos Aires’ second hub, the Jorge Newbery Airpark, is number one, with 457,300 total passengers in 2021, or a 42.6% market share. In the Patagonia, the airport at Bariloche is in second place, with a 10.2% market share. Then comes Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, and the cities of Córdoba, Mendoza, Salta, Puerto Iguazú, Neuquén, and San Martín de los Andes. How about the international recovery? In the last couple of years, Argentina has seen the exit of Norwegian and LAN Argentinaand the merge of Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral. Moreover, several airlines have ceased their routes to the country. For example, Argentina lost connectivity with cities like Auckland and Dubai. Currently, Argentina’s travel restrictions are among the strictest worldwide. The country only allows 16,100 international travelers per week (but only Argentinian citizens and foreign residents). That’s 2,300 people coming abroad daily. Argentina is planning the possible implementation of a travel corridor pilot experience with Chile and Uruguay. Nevertheless, there’s no more information at the moment regarding this corridor. These rules have prohibited Argentina from having an international travel recovery. So far, the country has had 912,000 international passengers. That’s a 9.2% bounce back from pre-pandemic levels. In terms of daily passengers, the international market has remained flat throughout the year. On a Monday in January, Argentina had 3,279 international travelers. Move forward to August, and the country averaged 3,339 passengers. If anyone asks how’s Argentina's airline recovery going, the answer is not so good, and it is taking way too long. [caption id="attachment_57360" align="aligncenter" width="580"] A snapshot of Argentina's international traffic in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Photo: ANAC[/caption]

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