Sky Airline will link Bariloche with Puerto Montt and a new air taxi company will arrive

The Government authorized the Chilean airline Sky Airline to operate two new destinations, between Bariloche and the Chilean city of Puerto Montt , in the south of both countries, as well as the route that will connect Santiago de Chile with Buenos Aires and from there to the Brazilian city of Salvador de Bahía . The authorization is for both passenger and cargo transport and both routes will begin operating at the end of March 2025.

Also, on Tuesday, the Undersecretary of Air Transport authorized a route of the Paraguayan airline Paranair , between Asunción and Salta, which had been operating since February 11 with provisional authorization based on flight scheduling. Now, with the publication of Provision 9 of the Undersecretary, that route became firm.

In addition, the agency headed by Hernán Gómez authorized the operation of a new air taxi company , Listra 200, based in the town of Benavídez, which will operate under the commercial brand Listrair.

In the case of Sky, this is the first direct connection between Bariloche and Puerto Montt, cities that are at a similar latitude in the southern part of the two countries.

As for the route between Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and San Salvador de Bahía, it is a modality that involves "freedoms of the air" that are beginning to be applied based on the bilateral agreement that Argentina and Chile signed in April of last year. It is an agreement on unlimited flight frequencies and enabling up to the ninth freedom of the air, which allows airlines from the other country to carry out domestic flights.

So far, this "ninth" freedom has not been applied by any of the airlines , but official sources have reported Sky's interest in "exploring" this alternative. The Paulmann family company already connects Buenos Aires (Aeroparque and Ezeiza), El Calafate, Mendoza and Bariloche - San Pablo, with Santiago de Chile.

As for Paranair, controlled by the Spanish-Canadian group Avmax-Air Nostrum , it also expressed its interest in making at least one stopover in the Argentine cabotage on one of the routes it connects from Paraguay. Its manager, Jaime Cassola, told Clarín last year that during 2025 they will incorporate a fourth aircraft, which would allow them to increase their frequencies to Argentina. Among these hypothetical routes, there was a corridor between Asunción, Jujuy and Mendoza , as well as between Asunción, Córdoba and Mendoza.