Aerolíneas Argentinas and JetSMART carried 97.4% of Argentina’s domestic passengers in August, up from 81.0% a year earlier, according to The Ushuaia Times’ analysis of flight records from ANAC, the national civil aviation regulator. The change followed the end of service by the low-cost airline Flybondi, which has not flown a scheduled route since August 6.
Flybondi was one of three large domestic airlines as recently as February, when it carried 25.2% of scheduled domestic passengers (342,036 people), ANAC’s records show. In August it carried 1,873 passengers, 0.1% of the market, all between August 1 and 6.
Rivals took only part of the traffic
Total domestic traffic fell 7.5% in August from a year earlier, to 1,380,675 passengers from 1,491,925, ANAC’s records show. Aerolíneas Argentinas carried 934,356 passengers (up 9.4%), JetSMART 409,732 (up 15.4%) and the regional carrier Andes Líneas Aéreas 32,774 (up 21.1%). Together they gained 141,377 passengers, against the 252,626 that Flybondi lost, so they recaptured 56% of its traffic.
Argentina’s tourism statistics office, which republishes ANAC’s data, counts seats too. Domestic seats fell 12.2% in the second quarter against the same quarter of 2025, and Flybondi’s fell 59.6%. ANAC’s records cover passengers and flights, not fares, so they show where traffic went but not what it cost.
Fewer choices on the routes Flybondi left
Flybondi carried at least 300 passengers a month on 33 routes in July 2025, 261,370 passengers in all, the tourism statistics office’s route data show. On 17 of those routes Aerolíneas Argentinas is now the only scheduled airline, and passengers on them fell 30% in July from a year earlier, to 154,934 from 222,689. On the other 16, where two other airlines still fly, passengers fell 4%.
Routes from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires’ domestic airport, show the pattern. Aeroparque to Corrientes carried 9,787 passengers in July, down 48% from 18,790, according to the same data; Posadas fell 33% to 16,159 and Puerto Madryn 50% to 6,740. Córdoba to Bariloche fell 57% to 6,367, and Ezeiza, the main international airport, to Jujuy fell 69% to 3,486.
The share of passengers flying on a route served by a single airline rose to 21.4% in July from 14.0% a year earlier, counting an airline as present when it carried at least 300 passengers on the route in the month. The share on routes with three or more airlines fell to 44.6% from 65.9%.
What comes next
JetSMART said in June that it will grow from 13 aircraft in Argentina to 17 in October, 19 in December and 23 for the summer season, and take over Flybondi’s routes to Posadas, San Juan and Santiago del Estero. “We are taking advantage of the space they have left,” chief executive Estuardo Ortiz told La Nación.
Flybondi filed for a court-supervised restructuring on October 2, a concurso preventivo similar to Chapter 11 in the United States. Judge Guillermo Pesaresi must decide whether to open the case, which would appoint a trustee and require creditors to file their claims. Passengers who are owed refunds can try a card dispute, a travel agency claim or a filing with the trustee, as our story on Flybondi refunds explains.
