Friday, March 24, 2017

NEW AIRLINE PLANS: Flyest taking over Sol Lineas Aereas AOC and Route Authorities

New details have emerged about Flyest, the new regional airline that was recently announced to start up in early April of this year, which came as a surprise since no previous information about the carrier was disclosed in any publication.  

Ownership

The airline is presently owned by three individuals; Gustavo Cebreiro, Juan Nyffenegger and Horacio Darréformer, all of whom had minority stakes in Sol Lineas Aereas, the Rosario-based regional carrier which shut down in early 2016.  The Angeli family, which had a majority stake in Sol, will reportedly not have any ownership in Flyest.  The current owners will apparently soon sell 49% of the airline to Inversora Líneas Aéreas Internacionales (ILAI), the Argentine affiliate of Spanish regional carrier Air Nostrum, which was involved in a joint venture with Sol at the time of its shutdown last year.  

Sol Lineas Aereas AOC & Routes

Flyest is reportedly in the process of acquiring Sol's operating certificate and route rights from Buenos Aires Aeroparque (AEP) to Mar del Plata (MDQ), Rosario (ROS), Rafaela (RAF), Santa Fe (SFN) and Montevideo (MVD) with the intention of starting service to Uruguay very soon on 07Apr17.

Normally, if an Argentine carrier does not fly for six months it loses its route rights but plans for Flyest were apparently already underway at that point and the carrier's management asked for an extension of this deadline and received it.  

First Aircraft

Flyest's first aircraft is one of the former Sol / Air Nostrum CRJ-200's, LV-GIJ (c/n 7466), which was parked in Asuncion (ASU) since early 2016 until it was recently flown to Buenos Aires Aeroparque (AEP).  The aircraft sported Sol's last Austral-style color scheme without titles while it was parked in Paraguay but was quickly painted with Flyest titles before its flight to Argentina with no changes being made to the basic scheme.  Four other CRJ-200's and 120 staff, many of them former Sol employees, are expected to join the carrier by year's end.

Editor's Note

Flyest's start up date seems way too ambitious since transferring the Air Operator Certificate from one entity to another normally still requires many of the procedures involved in acquiring an original AOC, such as demonstrating the financial and operating fitness to operate an air carrier.      

Sources:

http://www.siscoma.com.ar/online/aviacion/2017/avn170309/avn-170309.html
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1992896-flyest-con-los-aviones-pintados-de-apuro-ya-tiene-todo-listo-para-empezar-a-volar-en-la-argentina

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