Luis Ceriotto
09/15/2021 18:27
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 09/15/2021 6:47 PM
The
Flybondi
airline
has just added a
fourth aircraft
to its fleet, just one short of those it had before having completely ceased operations for almost a year, during 2020. And it announced that it will start flying to neighboring countries from October .
The fourth aircraft of the low cost airline is a
Boeing 737-800 NG model 2006, with 189 seats
, registration LV-KAY, which arrived yesterday at Ezeiza Airport from the United States.
Until the pandemic, Flybondi had a fleet of
five aircraft
, which in March of last year were grounded for about
ten months
, except for a repatriation flight.
Domestic flights in the country were resumed between November and December of last year.
Flybondi returned to flying regularly only in December, after an agreement with the
Regulatory Body of the National Airport System (ORSNA)
to move its operations from the El Palomar airport to that of Ezeiza.
In April, as part of the same agreement, Flybondi once again moved its operations, this time to the
Metropolitan
Airport, where today practically all domestic flights are based (some of the Airlines continue to be made from Ezeiza).
JetSmart
, the other low cost airline that operates in Argentina and which was recently acquired, in an undisclosed percentage, by American Airlines,
also has its base today at the metropolitan air station
.
With the pandemic and the planes on the ground, between March and December of last year, Flybondi canceled some aircraft rental contracts and sent those that it continued to rent abroad.
By the end of last year, for almost a month there were no Flybondi aircraft in the country: the only aircraft that had been operational in the pandemic was sent to Mexico for maintenance.
Despite this total strike, which lasted between March and December, the "low cost" controlled by the US Cartesian fund
did not fire people
.
With more than
500 employees
, most of them received part of their salary for several months through ATP programs of the State.
Now the airline flies to
13 destinations
within the country.
In the statement that announced the arrival of its new plane, it indicated that in August it had 91% occupancy and that it will begin to fly to regional destinations (neighboring countries) "
in the last quarter
" of this year.
In July, when they had incorporated their third plane, they had already announced
Paraguay and Brazil
as their next regional destinations.
“In August we had
record occupancy
on our flights.
This marks an important recovery in tourism, with very good trends for the coming months and the summer season ”, said its CEO,
Mauricio Sana
.
