In the event you’re taking part in Scattergories or some trivia recreation and the class of airways comes up, you possible gained’t consider even one from the continent containing Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile, though these international locations host a number of. The most important airways in South America are largely working below the radar on the worldwide stage, seldom rating close to the highest of greatest airways lists, but in addition not on the backside both.
A part of that is geography. Few of them enterprise a lot past the Americas, blissful to serve prospects flying north and south on this hemisphere. They largely rely upon partnerships and codeshares to go elsewhere, although you do see a number of flights to Europe on them, particularly through Brazil. With tourism roaring again in Latin America although and European international locations complaining about overtourism, we’ll most likely see extra within the coming years.
Among the many array of larger names are nationwide and regional airways which were round for years. In the event you’re flying throughout the continent or nation, most international locations have a handful of native choices, in addition to ones that concentrate on travels to close by international locations and cities, or areas much less typically traveled to by bigger airways. At all times search on Google Flights or Skyscanner to show up routes chances are you’ll not have heard about. There are extra airline choices than you most likely assume past what’s on this record.
As of now, listed below are the biggest airways in South America, together with one which’s based mostly simply north of Colombia however serving a lot of the continent.
LATAM Airways
LATAM Artistic Commons photograph by Anna Zvereva
Previously referred to as LAN Airways after which modified once they merged with TAM, this Santiago-based Chilean multinational airline is the biggest total in Latin America when it comes to routes, fleet measurement, and passengers. In 2023, the airline carried near 74 million passengers.
LATAM is the predominant airline in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador, and the second largest in Colombia. It serves locations all through Latin and North America, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania. On the time of writing, it was the one South American airline flying all the way in which to Australia. It’s additionally the one you’ll most likely board if you happen to head to Easter Island, in any other case referred to as Rapa Nui.
LATAM Airways Group is a part of the SkyTeam alliance of airways, so you should utilize factors amassed on Delta or Aeromexico to fly on SkyTeam and in case you have standing with the alliance, you may profit from that right here.
Search flights on LATAM right here
Avianca Airways
Courtesy of Avianca Airways of Colombia
Based mostly in Bogota, Colombia, Avianca is the second largest airline in South America and obtained even larger final decade when it absorbed one based mostly in Central America: Taca. So Avianca really has a number of hubs you can find yourself flying by way of between america and South America, comparable to San Salvador or San Jose, Costa Rica.
Avianca served round 32 million passengers in 2023 and the airline continues to be recovering from its chapter submitting within the early days of the pandemic. They’ve gone downscale fairly a bit since then, shoving in 20% extra seats, easing again on their beforehand beneficiant baggage allowance, promoting off numerous planes, and serving much less food and drinks in all lessons.
Nonetheless, this can be a member of the Star Alliance with Air Canada and United, so it’s factors incomes or utilizing choice and the flights is usually a whole lot within the entrance of the airplane, which provides you a greater baggage allowance and entry to their airport lounges. They’re reportedly bettering their enterprise class cabins as properly, so it could possibly be value a shot to improve. They served 25 worldwide locations and go nearly in all places with an airport in Colombia.
Learn our full evaluate of Avianca right here.
Gol Linhas Aereas
Displaying how a lot the market has modified over the previous decade, two Brazilian finances carriers have pushed down the nationwide airline of Argentina (see beneath). Rio-based Gol might overtake Avianca at some point if they will handle to unravel their monetary issues: the airline now serves round 31 million passengers per 12 months.
With the Brazilian forex fall making its fares extra enticing to foreigners, it could look like in place with guests from overseas. Sadly, the corporate has piles of debt and unpaid payments it ran up when the Brazilian actual was a lot stronger. As we write this, the corporate continues to be working however is in chapter. They weren’t worthwhile in 2023.
You usually tend to run into this airline when shifting round Brazil than you’re coming from one other nation. Whereas they’ve 37% of the home market share, it’s a tiny 4% for worldwide. It has essentially the most locations in Brazil, with greater than 70 cities served.
Gol Airways has 137 planes serving 73 locations, however the one ones in North America are Miami and Orlando (other than a number of Caribbean islands). Though Delta has a minority possession stake in Gol, the airline isn’t a part of any airline teams or worldwide alliance.
Search flights to South America with Skyscanner
Azul Brazilian Airways
With their enterprise mannequin “to stimulate demand by offering frequent and inexpensive air service to underserved markets all through Brazil,” this suburban Sao Paulo airline flies all through the nation in addition to some farther locations comparable to France and Lisbon.
The unique founding father of Azul was Brazilian-born David Neeleman, the one who based JetBlue Airways within the USA. He nonetheless serves as chairman. It began flying on the finish of 2008 and now serves 29 million passengers yearly with a fleet of 166 plane. It has not had a worthwhile 12 months because the pandemic began in 2020. There’s been some hypothesis within the trade that Gol and Azul might merge sooner or later.
Courtesy of Azul Linhas Aereas
Azul Airways serves 162 locations, lots of them Brazilian cities fed by slender Embraer planes. Azul does fly to many locations inside South America although, a number of in Europe, and it has direct flights to many Brazilian places from Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando in Florida. The corporate additionally has code share agreements with JetBlue and minority stakeholder United. It doesn’t belong to any alliance.
See extra about Azul right here.
Aerolineas Argentina
As with the nation it’s named after, this airline has had loads of ups and downs over time as Argentina lurched from one monetary disaster to a different. It has partly survived by having a near-monopoly on home routes till comparatively just lately and by making passengers pay for every leg of their journey once they had a compulsory hub connection in Buenos Aires.
I’ve flown on this airline a number of instances and whereas the expertise is seldom memorable, it’s seldom unhealthy both. They’ll get you the place you’re going and move out some snacks and perhaps a glass of wine. In a rustic so lengthy from prime to backside, they undoubtedly fill a necessity.
Aerolineas Argentina served 14 million passengers final 12 months, half what the 2 Brazilian carriers above did. You’re extra prone to run into this one when scoping out flights from the USA although. This airline is a part of the Skyteam alliance with Delta, to begin with, in order that they have codeshare choices. There’s no route map or itemizing on their web site, however they seem to have flights to Buenos Aires from Miami, New York Metropolis, and Cancun.
SKY Airline
Based mostly in Santiago Chile, Sky Airline is the second-largest airline within the countrye behind flag service LATAM Airways. It was additionally the primary airline to implement a low-cost mannequin in Chile and deal with a large-scale sustainable progress technique.
The corporate additionally runs Sky Peru, a Lima-based subsidiary and the second-largest service within the Peruvian market behind LATAM Peru. You will note this one pop up if you happen to’re looking flights from Lima to Cusco, Arequipa, or Puno. Collectively the 2 arms of the corporate fly 29 jets in 8 international locations, together with one flight to Miami.
JetSMART
Courtesy of JetSMART Chile
Generally known as the ultra-low price service of Chile, this airline based in 2017 was an Indigo Companions funding—an organization additionally concerned with Volaris and Frontier in North America, in addition to Wizz Air in Europe. The animal-themed fleet of this low-cost airline travels all around the continent to 10 completely different international locations and 33 locations, providing choice for getting round inside South America.
The JetSMART fleet of 26 planes flies round 5 million passengers a 12 months and may get you from Santiago to Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Colombia. Through one other hub in Argentina, it serves many widespread locations in that nation on home routes.
Simply be suggested that the reference to Frontier can also be a clue about how this airline is considered by prospects. It regularly receives one-star evaluations in on-line boards like TrustPilot. The airline apparently caters to individuals who don’t want to alter garments once they journey. Their web site says, “Our charges are very low and quite simple. They entitle you to journey with a small purse from level A to level B.”
When American Airways and the OneWorld alliance obtained knocked out of South America although, they didn’t have many decisions left to crew up with. So now you may earn AA miles on JetSMART flights and get your boarding move from one place if you happen to’re altering planes.
Boliviana de Aviacion
The nationwide service of Bolivia is available in at quantity eight on this record, a mirrored image of Bolivia’s measurement and its low variety of guests from elsewhere. This airline is the flag service of Bolivia, owned by the nation’s authorities. It has a fleet of 23 planes and has hubs in La Paz and Santa Cruz.
Boliviana de Aviacion serves between three and 5 million passengers a 12 months and its worldwide locations are largely close by, nevertheless it has two long-haul routes to Miami and Madrid.
FlyBondi
This airline primarily serves Argentina from a base in Buenos Aires, although it does fly to a few locations in Brazil. It was based in 2016 and is called a finances service with no frills. It flew round 4 million passengers final 12 months.
Wingo
Rounding out the top-10 of the biggest airways in South America is Wingo, a reputation that’s extra enjoyable to say than most of them right here. Wingo is one other low-cost service, this one based mostly in Colombia, with its principal hub in Bogota. It basically changed a home flight enterprise that Copa Airways had in Colombia and Copa continues to be the proprietor.
I really took two flights on the airline on my final journey to the nation: from Cancun to Bogota and from Medellin to Mexico Metropolis. The expertise was much like what you get on most of those low-cost carriers, with additional costs for all the things they will consider however with fares that have been among the many least expensive worldwide ones I’ve ever seen. Additionally they gained the prize for the most affordable drink costs I’ve seen on any airline: $2 for a beer or aguardiente, $3 for rum!
Wingo picked up some market share when rival Viva Air went out of enterprise in 2023. The airline served round two million passengers final 12 months and other than fairly a number of home locations and the Mexican ones I discussed, Wingo additionally flies to Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica. You might make your individual stopover from the USA or Canada and fly to Cancun or Mexico Metropolis, then head to Colombia on this airline.
Copa Airways (Honorable Point out)
Copa Airways relies in Panama, not in South America, however I’m itemizing it right here as a result of Panama Metropolis is a fast hop from Colombia and Copa fliest to many of the main locations on the continent. Twice I’ve flown Copa to South America from the USA they usually really provide extra choices than anybody in addition to LATAM from North America to South. They are saying they’re the airline serviing “the crossroads of the Americas” and that appears honest.
Copa Airways flies to 33 international locations and serves extra U.S. cities than any airline south of Mexico. (Plus two in Canada.) They’ve flights from numerous non-hub airports within the USA too that aren’t served by others. For instance, they fly from Austin, Boston, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Montreal, Raleigh, and Tampa.
See our full evaluate of Copa Airways right here.
Different Airways of Observe in South America
When you get past the biggest airways in South America, the numbers from 11 on are typically regional carriers that don’t enterprise a lot past their host borders. There are a number of exceptions although among the many remaining Latin American airways that you simply may wish to think about when touring round this continent.
Clic Air and Satena – Colombia has a few of the least expensive home flights on the planet because of a local weather of heavy competitors. Moreover Avianca and Wingo, you’ll additionally see choices for Clic Air and Satena pop up, typically for fares which are decrease than the value of gasoline to drive to the place you’re going.
Paranair – If in case you have some purpose to go to Paraguay, Paranair is the nationwide service. The landlocked nation of Paraguay isn’t very large, so most of its flights are to different international locations comparable to Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay.
Search flights to South America with Skyscanner
Images by Luxurious Latin America besides the place indicated. Article analysis supplied by contributor Alina Leffel.