Last month finished as the best October in terms of domestic passengers (1.34 million) and it exceeeds by 41% the value for October 2015, when there were 949 thousand passengers.
Several airports set new historical highs in terms of domestic passengers (both embarked and disembarked): Córdoba, with 226 thousand passengers, exceending previous record by 4% (Jul’18; 218 thousand); Mendoza, with 139k, +10% (Aug’18, 126k); Iguazú, with 117k passengers, +7% (Jul’18; 110k); Salta, with 108k, +2% (Jul’18, 106k); Trelew, 46k passengers, +7% (Nov’07, 43k); Corrientes, with more than 15.4k passengers, barely surpassing previuous maximum (Aug’18) and Catamarca, with more than 6.8k passengers, exdeeding previous record (Oct’17) by 3%.
For domestic passengers, there was an increase of 16% when comparing against October 2017 and a 13% YTD variation. Load factor was 78% on average for these flights.
Aerolíneas Argentinas holds achieved a market share of 67%, followed by LATAM with 17%, Flybondi with 8%, Andes 6% and Avianca with 1%. Moreover, on Oct 16th, Norwegian started flying domestic routes between AEP and Córdoba and Mendoza.
Buenos Aires (from/to Aeroparque) – Córdoba was the busiest domestic route in October, with more than 115 thousand passengers in 911 flights.
Corrientes International Airport (Dr. Fernando Piragine Naveyro), shows the highest Year-on-Year variation this month: +111% increase against October 2017; followed by Mar del Plata International Airport, with 76%. Ángel de la Paz Aragonés Airport, in Santiago del Estero, is next with a 58% increase and Posadas Airport, showing a 53% variation comes in 4th place.
Regarding the international flights, there were more than 1.15 million passengers, meaning a 8% decrease against October 2017 and the average load factor was 75%. On the other hand, YTD variation mantains a 4% increase.
LATAM Airlines Group holds the highest share of the international market, with 27%, followed by Aerolíneas Argentinas, which holds a 22%. The remaining 51% is mostly atomized, being Gol, Iberia and American Airlines the main players.
Sao Paulo and Santiago (from/to Ezeiza) were the busiest international routes, with more than 95 and 86 thousand passengers, respectively, in 659 and 648 flights, respectively, during October.
We can witness a great development in the domestic flights between the different regions of the country (other than Aeroparque, Ezeiza and El Palomar), mainly thanks to the new hub in Córdoba. For instance, the route Córdoba – Bariloche, with more than 8,200 passengers in October, shows a YoY variation of 195%, followed by Córdoba – Neuquén, with a 101% increase and 9,000 passengers and Córdoba – Tucumán, exceeding October 2017 by 93% with more than 6.5 thousand passengers.
Near 164 thousand passengers flew without having to connect via the airports in Buenos Aires metropolitan area (Ezeiza, Aeroparque and El Palomar), number that exceeds that for October 2017 by 31%. In 2018, more than 1.35 million passengers flew directly between these cities, meaning a 118% increase when compared against the first ten months of 2015, when the total value was about 617 thousand passengers.
Moreover, we see a vast development in the international routes that do not connect via Buenos Aires (AEP/EZE/EPA): in October, there were more than 168 thousand passengers and year-to-date, this number exceeds 2 million, being the increase against 2015 of 149%.
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery is the busiest airport, with 10,872 flights in the month and serving more than 1.16 million passengers. Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini (Ezeiza) occupies the second place with 6,506 flights and 919 thousand passengers…
